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Michelle Lee has been appointed deputy under secretary of commerce for intellectual property and deputy director of the USPTO. She is the replacement for Teresa Stanek Rea, who left the agency in November.The appointment has led to some speculation that Lee could eventually become the director of the USPTO, as well as questions about whether legally she could take it on given there is no director above her to appoint a deputy.

After lengthy delays and extensive consultation, the government of Canada recently announced that most of Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), including the rules surrounding sending commercial electronic messages, will come into force on July 1 2014.

Section 31 of the Trade Mark Law lists the acts that can infringe the trade mark owner's exclusivity right, imposing a sentence that can range from three months to two years of imprisonment, plus the possible application of fines.

Protecting IP rights in the MENA region is a challenging process, which requires special consideration and handling. However, with soaring growth, it is not a market that rights holders can afford to ignore. They must be fully aware of the IP framework and the most important developments that unfolded over the past year.

In a decision recently published in the Official Journal of the EPO (case T 1843/09), a technical board of appeal of the EPO has allowed a rare exception to the otherwise well-established principle of the prohibition of reformatio in peius.

It goes without saying that the protection of one's intellectual property is of great importance, but how does that work in the case of a joint ownership of a trade mark?

In its judgment of December 5 2013, the Higher District Court of Düsseldorf referred to the Court of Justice of the EU the question of whether Article 10(6) of Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use should be interpreted as meaning that the exemption from patent protection also extends to the supplies by a third party of a patent-protected active agent for purely commercial reasons to a generics producer who intends to conduct studies or trials for a marketing authorisation.

A French trade mark is valid in the overseas departments and territories (called DROM), namely Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Reunion and Mayotte as well as the overseas communities (called COM), namely Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

While the Basmati patent rights dispute caught the world's notice, the domestic controversy relating to GI protection over Basmati rice has hardly been given any attention. In a decision issued on December 31 2013, the Geographical Indications Registry (GI Registry) rejected an application filed by an export promotion council (APEDA) seeking GI protection over Basmati rice. The GI application was filed in 2008 and was opposed by six different opponents, including the state government of Madhya Pradesh. All parties claimed they represented the interests of the Basmati-growing farmers.

Australia's highest court has recently confirmed that patents are available for the broad grounds of methods of medical treatment.