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Every week our Americas editor Michael Loney rounds up some of the interesting, amusing and simply weird IP stories from news reports and blogs. Utynam picks out a few recent highlights

H D Lee of the USA, owner of the famous brand Lee for jeans, suffered another setback in its trade mark battle with local company Emerald Garment Manufacturing Co. As far back as 1995, the Supreme Court issued decision in GR 100098 holding that Emerald's trade mark Stylistic Mr Lee is not confusingly similar to H D Lee's trademark Lee, applying the holistic test, despite the decisions of the then Bureau of Patents, Trademarks, Technology Transfer (now the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines) and the Court of Appeals using the dominancy test. This 1995 decision also ruled that while H D Lee was the senior registrant, it failed to substantiate its claim of prior use of the mark dating as far back as 1946, while Emerald was able to provide sales invoices proving actual use since 1975.

In the case of Hewlett-Packard v Digital Revolution (Court of Appeal, The Hague, May 23 2017) a fair number of claims of the patent (EP 2170617) were held to be invalid on the basis of the interpretation of the means-plus-function claims. The appeal court endorsed the interpretation that was used by the EPO Board of Appeal in case T 0096/12.

Last year (2016), the criminal system in force in Mexico until then was changed. A new accusatory oral system was implemented, which represents changes in both the system and the criteria.

To further improve examination quality, the Taiwan IP Office (TIPO) recently amended the examination guidelines regarding inventive step, among other changes. The new guidelines were implemented on July 1 2017.

Six years after its second edition of the WIPO Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions, WIPO unveiled the third edition of its overview of UDRP jurisprudence. Justin Chay and Brian Beckham highlight several key updates

In general, among the three types of patents, patent for invention offers protection of the broadest subject matters, including products, processes and usages. Patent for utility model aims at protecting product with the shape, structure, or their combination. Accordingly, method, usage, ingredient and the like cannot be protected by utility model. Patent for design protects the appearance of product in the form of shape, pattern, or their combination, or the combination of the color with shape or pattern of product, which creates an aesthetic feeling.

Tim Moss took over as chief executive of the UK IPO on May 1. Three months on, he talked to James Nurton about his ambitions, Brexit and being an “honest broker”

The UK Supreme Court’s decision in R v C that there is criminal liability for dealing in grey goods which the trade mark owner has not authorised for sale has been hailed as great news for brand owners. Anna Carboni, Darren Meale and Arty Rajendra give their opinion on whether it catches parallel imports and what it means for brand owners, grey goods dealers and enforcement authorities

The report on counterfeiting, how it is moving online and the impact of social media was commissioned by the UK IP Office. It draws five conclusions and makes two recommendations