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Practitioners before the EPO are aware that EPO proceedings are front-loaded. In effect, all evidence, amendments and arguments should be on file as early as possible in the proceedings. This especially applies to inter-partes proceedings, in which late-filed evidence or amendments could place other parties at a disadvantage.

In Taiwan, in the event that a departing employee joins a competitor of his/her former employer and thus breaches his/her contract of employment containing a non-competition clause, the former employer, depending on the degree of injury, cannot only claim damages but also seek an injunction or preliminary injunction to prevent its trade secrets or other intellectual property from being divulged. Back in 2014, TSMC successfully restrained its former head of R&D department from working for Samsung in a lawsuit upheld by the Supreme Court.

Utynam was part of the Managing IP team that published the INTA Daily News at the INTA Annual Meeting in Orlando in May. Here are some of the highlights

On April 5, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) issued Joint Circular 05/2016/TTLT-BKHCN-BKHDT providing details and guidance on the handling of cases where enterprise names infringe IP rights. The new joint circular, which came into effect on May 20, is the first official regulation ever issued on this subject in Vietnam, and is expected to prevent circumstances in which names of companies are identical or confusingly similar to protected IP objects of unassociated IP holders, and aim to take advantage of the IP holders' reputations.

On April 23 2016 in celebration of the World IP Day, the Intellectual Property Office (IPOPHL) launched its improved electronic filing system for trade marks called IPOPHL TM eFile. Unlke the previous e-filing system where payment has to be deposited physically to the designated bank, the new TMeFile is linked to three different payment channels, hence, the filer need not go to the IPOPHL office to file trade mark applications. The new system was initiated by newly appointed IPOPHL Director General Josephine Rima-Santiago. The added features of the new system are:

A utility model can be obtained in Spain for inventions relating to products, not methods, and for a term of 10 years.

The Central District of California’s June 23 verdict in Skidmore v Zeppelin will ease fears raised after last year’s Blurred Lines case that juries are more likely to find infringement in copyright cases involving songs

The International Trade Commission issued a limited exclusion order and cease and desist order for Arista infringing three patents in an investigation brought by Cisco Systems relating to ethernet switch products

The Supreme Court will hear Life Techs v Promega but denied cert in the controversial Sequenom v Ariosa case, which patent watchers had hoped would ease their Section 101 pain

Hillary Clinton supporting patent reform, Jack Ma clarifying comments on counterfeits that attracted criticism, Qualcomm suing a company in China, Happy Birthday to You officially entering the public domain, the Federal Circuit ruling on continuation applications, and the ITC disappointing Converse were in the intellectual property headlines in the past week