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The Federal Circuit has concluded “the patent at issue is outside the definition of a CBM patent that Congress provided by statute” in its Secure Axcess v PNC Bank National Association ruling. Judge Lourie wrote a dissent, backing up the PTAB’s determination

Judge Sleet of the District of Delaware has dismissed Genentech’s biosimilar complaint against Amgen for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, and granted 45 days for an amended complaint to be filed

Natalie Rahhal analyses the issues at stake when the US Supreme Court hears the biosimilars dispute between Sandoz and Amgen later this year

On January 12 2017, the Ho Chi Minh City Court rendered a ruling in favour of a major Silicon Valley high-tech company. This ended a lengthy dispute between the company and a Vietnamese entity over the latter's unauthorised use and registration of a company name and a domain name which incorporated the former's registered trade mark. To the delight of the US company, the court resolved the dispute in an expedient 55 days. The brand owner's course of action provided a useful test of new regulations on domain name and company name disputes.

The Supreme Court of Thailand recently reaffirmed the test for distinctiveness in regard to trade marks, in a positive decision that will hopefully provide brand owners with better prospects for successfully arguing before the Thai Trade Marks Office and Appeal Board that their distinctive word marks should be registrable.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in the case of Lee Jason Kibler, d/b/a DJ Logic v Robert Bryson Hall, II, et al, issued a ruling which set forth several instructional tips on the value of marketing through social media channels in seeking to demonstrate the strength of a trade mark.

The new Industrial Property Code entered into force in January 2017 and repealed Decree Law No 551 on Patents and other decree laws pertaining to IP rights. The new Industrial Property Code only brings a few changes to the Decree Law previously in effect. One of the changes brought by the new Code is that, similar to the European Patent Convention to which Turkey is a party, a post-grant opposition system has been introduced. Accordingly third parties may oppose against the grant of the patent within six months of the publication of the grant decision in the Official Bulletin. Under the now repealed Decree Law, third parties were only allowed to comment on the search report on patent application within six months of publication of the search report.

Trade mark registrations sometimes take turns which would not be expected in the normal run of things. The trade mark owner usually registers his trade mark to sell his goods, promote his services, etc. Sometimes the infrastructure is not ready and the trade mark is not used for some time. In order that the trade mark owner should not be too relaxed there is a pike in the lake to keep all trade mark owners awake. The pike in this context is the law which allows three years of carefree existence of a trade mark.

Generally, when faced with competitor's illegal copying of a product's package, unless the design of such package is a registered design patent or a trade mark, the claimant used to rely on Article 22 of Taiwan's Fair Trade Act to seek injunctive relief. However, under the Fair Trade Act, there will be a heavy burden on the claimant to show to the judge that the asserted package is a "famous representation" that is "commonly known to the general public". Thus, if the design of a product package is eligible for copyright protection, it would be another powerful tool to combat copycats and free riders.

The doctrine of equivalents is provided under Section 75.2 of the IP Code of the Philippines (Republic Act 8293). However, in deciding actions for patent cancellation and infringement, the Intellectual Property Office (IPOPHL) as well as the Supreme Court rely for the most part on American case law. The recent patent infringement case of Eddie T Dionisio v Visita International Phils, Inc and Lal K Tulsiani (IPV No 10-2013-00034, July 28 2016) citing a cancellation case also between the parties shows this.