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Innovation is recognised as the major driver of economic growth and creation of highly qualified jobs.

For years, the courts have been preoccupied with infringement proceedings that are conducted by standard essential patents (SEP) holders, who previously submitted declarations as part of the standardization process, namely assurances that prospective licensees will be granted licences under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) conditions. The dispute is particularly about the extent to which an SEP can be enforced in court by dominant companies without them, in doing so, breaching the antitrust abuse law under Article 102 TFEU.

Bolstered by a federal statute which gives the Olympic names and symbols special protections beyond the basic principles of trade mark law and entitles the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to broader enforcement rights than ordinary trade mark owners, the USOC has long pursued an aggressive enforcement position against attempts by third parties to associate themselves with the Olympic games without permission.

On June 27 2016, the Belgian legislature finally adopted a new exception to copyright law, namely the freedom of panorama (FOP). According to this new provision, a copyright owner cannot impose its right against "the reproduction and public communication of visual, graphic or architectural artwork intended to be placed permanently in public places, providing that it concerns the reproduction or communication of the work as it is and that said reproduction or public communication does not affect the normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author" (Belgian Act of June 27 2016 modifying the Economic codex in view of implementing the freedom of panorama – new article XI.190 2/1° of the Economic codex).

The supervisory authority of the EPO, the Administrative Council, decided in its July meeting on the long-debated structural reform of the Boards of Appeal. Despite rumours that the Boards would be moved away from Munich to for example Berlin or Vienna, the AC eventually decided that the Boards will remain in Munich, albeit in premises not shared with other departments of the EPO.

This summer, the Court of Justice of the EU issued a ruling that dealt with the application of article 14 of the EU IP Enforcement Directive. According to this article, EU member states must ensure that in court cases, the reasonable and proportionate legal costs and other expenses incurred by the successful party shall, as a general rule, be borne by the losing party. While one could gather from this that the sky's the limit as far as costs compensations in IP cases go, the Court ruling teaches us there may in fact be limits.

Companies that decide to produce or sell products in mainland China without first having registered their trade marks do so at their own peril.

The Korean Patent Act has been revised twice in the year 2016 and the revisions are quite substantial. Some of the new revisions will become effective from June 30 2016 and others from March 1 2017. The major revisions include the following:

The Indonesian Parliament finally passed the draft new Patent Law on July 28 2016. This new Patent Law has recently been introduced as Law Number 13 of 2016, and is to replace Law Number 14 of 2001 on Patents.

A very recent court judgment issued by the Beijing IP Court imposed contributory liability on trade fair organisers for patent infringement. Though the reasoning is quite unclear, this decision gives some worthy attention to IP enforcement at Chinese trade fairs.