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The newly-born Greek law on trademarks implementing Directive (EU) 2015/2436 has an attention-worthy provision, relating to the renewal of trademarks within their grace period. More specifically, the new Greek law on trademarks provides that the payment of the renewal fee can be made within the last six months of the protection’s term. It can also be made within an additional term of six months following the expiry of the formal protection’s term, subject to the payment of the renewal fee increased by 50% and without negating third parties’ rights acquired in the meantime.

Artificial intelligence (AI), which does not yet have a solid definition, can generally be described as “the ability of a digital computer or computer controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.” AI systems have started to play a part in our daily life and today they carry out crucial roles for human beings. For instance, BlueDot’s AI system was among the first in the world to identify the emerging risk from COVID-19.

With many blocks on .xxx domain names expiring next year, brand owners should consider using new tools to prevent their trademarks being available to third parties

On January 15 2020, US President Donald Trump and Chinese vice-premier He Liu signed a trade agreement which President Trump has described as "the biggest deal anybody has ever seen." The deal promises to be the first phase of a larger new trade agreement between the US and China, announcing a significant de-escalation in the trade war between the two giants that has dragged along for more than one year. Of particular interest to those in the pharmaceutical industry will be Sections C and D of the first chapter of the trade agreement, which outline China's commitments to improve protection and enforcement of pharmaceutical-related patent rights, and in particular to creating an effective mechanism for early resolution of patent disputes between generic drug companies and pharmaceutical innovators, or a Chinese drug patent linkage system, as many may like to put it.

On April 21 2020, Beijing High Court issued the guiding opinions on the determination of damages in cases of infringement of intellectual property rights and unfair competition as well as the judging standards for statutory compensation ("关于侵害知识产权及不正当竞争案件确定损害赔偿的指导意见及法定赔偿的裁判标准") (opinions).

At the beginning of 1998, the EPO began allowing oral proceedings to be held as a video conference (OJ EPO 1997, 572). Video conferencing was only available for oral proceedings held before an examining division, i.e. prior to grant of the European patent. Oral proceedings before examining divisions are more suited to video conferencing as they are usually shorter and less complex than opposition oral proceedings, they are not open to the public, and only one party is present (the patent applicant).