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We have noticed that a discount retailer is selling lookalike versions of our product. What should we do?

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

In a first for Australia, the Competition Commission has launched action against Pfizer for alleged misuse of market power in attempting to extend patent protection beyond the patent expiry period for its Lipitor patent.

Given the popularity of the European opposition system and the new inter-partes review (IPR) proceedings introduced under the America Invents Act (AIA) in the United States, it may be time to rethink the limited options available to third parties for challenging patents in Canada.

Revisions to the PRC Trade Mark Law entered into effect on May 1 2014. They offer some potentially valuable weapons for addressing registry pirates as well as infringements in the market. Set out below is a summary of these new tools, as well as an overview of changes to the law's Implementing Regulations, issued by the State Council in late April.

The question of allowability of double patenting has once again occupied the Boards of Appeal of the EPO. More specifically, in decision T 2461/10 of March 26 2014, Board 3.3.08 has decided on an examination appeal, in which a European patent application directed to a modular antigen transport module and a use thereof had been refused by the examining division.

In a case regarding trade mark infringement, the Athens Civil Court of Appeals affirmed in its recent judgment no 457/2013 that the defendant's claim on abuse of process should be rejected for being contrary to the principle of priority, which applies in trade mark matters, as well as to the principle that trade mark rights are of public interest.

In 1992, the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP) refused a trade mark application due to its confusing similarity to the unregistered, but well-known, McDonald's trade mark of the US fast-food chain. This refusal was based merely on the reputation of the mark, as McDonald's – at the time – had not yet used or shown any intention to use the mark in Vietnam. This was the very first case involving a well-known mark in Vietnam.

Owners of marks that are well-known outside the United States may find that an American company has attempted to take advantage of the renown of the foreign mark by obtaining a trade mark registration for such mark in the United States. While Article 6(bis) of the Paris Convention provides the owner of a famous foreign trade mark with a basis for asserting and sustaining a claim of priority in the US over a US registrant, this provision does not provide a basis for cancelling a US registration absent use of the mark in the US.

The breakthrough and boom of the internet and the speed with which it developed brought about many conflicts and abuses related to the improper use of domain names.