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Europe's highest court has been asked to rule on whether fake goods in transit through the EU can be seized by Customs, report James Nurton and Emma Barraclough

China's government has released draft rules on national standards. Peter Ollier reports

Eileen McDermott reports from Washington DC on the oral arguments in the Bilski case

It is very difficult to cancel registered trade marks in Vietnam (even cases of obvious bad faith may take up to two years to resolve, which is both time-consuming and costly to rights owners). This means rights holders and their counsel need to quickly oppose trade mark applications prior to registration. Accordingly, it is important to understand the relevant timelines that affect the filing of oppositions in Vietnam.

Pursuant to Article 67.1.3 of the Patent Act, an interested party may begin invalidation proceedings against an invention patent if the patent owner is not entitled to the invention.

In 2009, a Swiss Federal Act establishing a specialised Federal Patent Court was passed. The new court will become the only first instance Swiss court for patent infringement and nullity proceedings (which to date have been handled by 26 cantonal courts of first instance), with Swiss national patents and the Swiss parts of European patents falling within the Court's jurisdiction. The Swiss Federal Court will retain its present function as second instance in patent matters. The new Patent Court will be constituted in 2010 and is expected to take up work early in 2011.

Over the last four years there has been a clarification of the Polish Patent Office's (PPO) practice in the field of patent prosecution. The application of a divide-and-conquer approach to subject matter of patent applications have resulted in narrow criteria of patentability in general being established.

Indran Shanmuganathan and Malini Madiyazhagan of Shearn Delamore & Co explain the limits of trade mark use and how owners need to be aware of how to use their marks to avoid cancellation actions

Under Section 39 of the Singapore Patents Act, where a patent has ceased to have effect because of a failure to pay any renewal fee an application for the restoration of the patent may be made. Under Rule 53(1), this application must be made within 30 months from the date on which the patent ceased to have effect, with an accompanying statutory declaration or affidavit setting out the grounds for the application and evidence in its support.

As a non-EU member state, Norway is not bound by the provisions of Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 29 2004 on the enforcement of IP rights.