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A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam

In the appealed case of Frederick Vital Erum v Integrated Formworks Builder, the Office of the Director General (ODG) of the Intellectual Property Office (IPOPHL) issued its decision on October 19 2018, affirming the decision of the Office of the Bureau of Legal Affairs (BLA) cancelling Erum's letters patent no. 1-2006-00047 (047) entitled "A Table Form Support System for Concrete Forming," on the ground that the claimed invention lacks inventive step and is therefore not patentable. Under Section 21 of the IP Code, for an invention to be given patent protection, it must be new, have an inventive step and be industrially applicable.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) issued a precedential opinion in In re American Cruise Lines, Inc. regarding the necessary provisions for an acceptable consent to registration. In doing so, the TTAB provided clarification and guidance to trade mark owners who are negotiating and drafting consent agreements.

Pursuant to the recent Code of Commencement of Execution Proceedings in Monetary Receivables Arising from Subscription Agreements (the Code) published in Official Gazette dated December 19 2018, mediation is now mandatory for commercial receivables claims. In line with Article 20 of the Code, Article 5/A is incorporated into the Turkish Commercial Code (TCC). This requires mediation for commercial receivables claims, in which compensation or payment of a certain amount is requested. Accordingly, mediation is a pre-condition of bringing a lawsuit before the courts. This recent development was implemented on January 1 2019.

The word Guaraná has associations with Latin American countries around the equator even in the minds of those who do not know what Guaraná is. In fact, Guaraná is a climbing plant in some subtropical countries. It contains caffeine and is used in soft drinks and food additives. AMBEV, a Brazilian company filed a trade mark application No 2016706914 in 2016 for goods and services in Class 32.

According to Article 33 of the Patent Law, invention patent applications should be filed on a case-by-case basis. Where two or more inventions are so linked that they form a single general inventive concept, they may be claimed in a single application. In other words, a single application can cover two or more inventions only when the claimed inventions are in possession of a common feature which is novel or non-obvious over the prior art.

The Decree on Amendments to Trademark Law in force as of August 10 2018 introduced new legal concepts to the IP Law to update and reinforce the intellectual property system in Mexico.

A decision of the Court of Appeal ([2018] EWCA Civ 2219) has recently become the first in the UK to reaffirm the consideration of equivalents when reviewing the issue of patent infringement.

The Fifth International Women’s Leadership Forum hosted by Managing IP, included Katherine Tsang of Diageo and Sumati Parikh from Smith Detection discussing IP strategy

The Federal Circuit ruled that the USPTO exceeded its authority by penalising patent owners for delays they could not have reasonably prevented