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The State of Israel, represented by Dr Shlomo Cohen & Co, Law Offices, has filed a NIS500 million ($132 million) lawsuit in the Tel Aviv District Court against Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Ltd and entrepreneur Robert Taub. Omrix, bought by Johnson & Johnson in 2008 for $438 million, has commercialised a number of related inventions concerning medical adhesives for treating haemophiliacs and other applications. In the lawsuit the state claims that the company stole its intellectual property.

The government's anti-piracy programme stepped up a notch at the end of 2009 with three important events taking place in December.

A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam - who received the world's first recorded patent in 1449

The National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP) has issued an official Notice in favour of General Electric, who lodged an opposition against Vietnamese trade mark application GE mancy & Device for real estate services in Class 36 under the name of Phong Thuy One-Member Co. In the Notice, the examiner concluded that the representation of GE mancy & Device would certainly result in association between the mark and General Electric in the minds of the public. The application was refused in accordance with Article 74 of the Vietnamese Law on Intellectual Property.

The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) has proposed an amendment to the law governing copyright collective management organisations (CMOs). The draft amendment is expected to be implemented in 2010.

Just before the 2010 New Year some of the big Russian banks received a notification from their colleague, the Eastern Express bank, to the effect that the words Christmas, New Year, Vacation can be used only after signing a licence agreement. Eastern Express registered the words as trade marks and decided to improve its business by collecting royalties from the other banks using those words. The marks were registered in relation to bank and insurance services, and also services connected with evaluation of real estate and works of art.

As reported in Managing IP, the Competition Council of the European Union has recently agreed on a set of conclusions on an enhanced patent system in Europe. The main features of the system include an EU patent to be granted under the provisions of the European Patent Convention, that is by the EPO, as well as a European and EU Patents Court (EEUPC).

From December 18 2009 the Patents Act, Section 3, third subsection 5, states that the exclusive right obtained by a patent does not include "trials, experiments and similar of a patented medicine that are required to obtain a marketing authorisation for a medicine in a state that is a contracting party to the agreement of 15 April 1994 on the establishment of the World Trade Organisation".

Countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have embarked on their first regional cooperation in intellectual property, specifically in patents, by introducing ASEAN Patent Examination Cooperation (ASPEC). There are eight participating IP offices from: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Once a search and examination report is issued by any of these countries, the applicant may use the report to file an ASPEC request in another member state. The report from the first IP Office will be used as a reference. However, the second IP Office is not obliged to adopt any of the findings or conclusions made by the first IP Office. At the moment, there is no additional fee to file ASPEC Request.

Last November the European Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution to introduce the compulsory labelling of the mark "Made In" to indicate the origin of goods imported into the European Union.