Local Insights

New patent and utility model procedures and updated fees form part of a legislative update to the Bangui Agreement that became effective in the new year, explains Craig Kahn of Spoor & Fisher Jersey

Matthew Costard of Spoor & Fisher Jersey considers application of the Madrid Protocol across Africa as Ethiopia’s intellectual property practice looks set to move closer to global standards

James Davies and Vishen Pillay at Adams & Adams discuss IP protection strategies and ownership considerations for AI

Khemphet Phonphakdy and Saithong Rattana of Tilleke & Gibbins summarise the changes under the latest revision as Laos aims to attract foreign investment and align its intellectual property laws with international standards

Wongrat Ratanaprayul of Tilleke & Gibbins highlights the complex processes required to secure AI patents across Southeast Asia

Sukontip Jitmongkolthong and Saithong Rattana of Tilleke & Gibbins describe how Laos has improved its framework to enforce IP rights through border measures

Joran Michiels of IPSILON Belgium examines how recent EPO and UPC decisions may support inventive-step arguments for CARs, ADCs, bispecific antibodies, and other next-generation therapeutics

Peter Koefoed of Inspicos examines how the EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal referral G 1/26 could clarify the application of G 1/24 when assessing the allowability of amended patent claims under the EPC

Alexander Ortlieb, Moritz Kampmann, and Stephan Maidl of Maiwald highlight six EPO appeal decisions that map the absolute floor of what patent applications for AI inventions must disclose – and how spectacularly some applicants miss that mark

Stephania Cardiel of Becerril, Coca & Becerril examines how recent reforms signal a regional move towards faster, more internationally aligned innovation systems

Roberta Arantes of Daniel Law looks at how the Brazilian legal landscape has responded to shifts in the concept of branding and its related levels of protection

Kene Gallois and Guilherme Coutinho of Daniel Law explain how the success of the plan will pave the way for Brazil to attract further investment and opportunities

Early this year, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property issued decisions denying registration for the trade mark PINCHE GRINGO BBQ & Design in classes 43 (restaurants) and 30 (sauces). The grounds of denial were a supposed violation of Article 4 of Mexican IP Law, which states that no patents, registrations or authorisations are to be granted for any legal figures or institutions regulated by this law, when the contents of an application are contrary to public order, morals and good customs.

In Mexico, droit moral is attached to the author and is inalienable, does not expire, cannot be waived and cannot be encumbered. The author and his/her heirs can enforce this right.

It has become common practice for parties of any administrative proceeding to ask the Institute of Industrial Property to require a third party, not related to the proceeding, or even its counterpart, to respond to several questions raised by the offeror of the proof. Such evidence is based on Article 203 of the Industrial Property Law, which states the "requirement to provide information and data" so that the authority can conduct inspection.

Raluca Vasilescu of Cabinet M Oproiu considers how AI and pricing pressures could affect patent attorneys’ work in the near future

Nick Aries of Bird & Bird LLP examines how agentic AI could reshape brand discovery, trademark enforcement, and comparative advertising, and outlines key risks for brand owners

Tariq Shajahan and Willem Niesing of NLO analyse dredging-related patent filings in key jurisdictions and highlight contrasting Western and Asian approaches to innovation, from component-level engineering to system-wide methodologies and AI-driven optimisation