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Managing IP's list of cases of the year 2013 profiles 40 IP cases from around the world. Here are the cases selected from Europe adn Africa. Read the introduction for more details, and links to the Asian and American cases.

I was attending a professional meeting last month during which I was told by colleagues that Belgian people (applicants and patentees as well as patent attorneys) must be more attentive to their term list than other people in Europe in order to meet the deadlines. I must admit that the burden on the shoulders of people managing patent rights in Belgium is indeed high when acting before the Belgian Patent Office.

Innovators wishing to file a patent application in Singapore should ensure that the specification of the patent application contains at least one enabling disclosure of the invention showing that they are in possession of the invention claimed and that it is enabled across the entire scope of the claim.

The Croatian Criminal Act entered into force on January 1 2013, replacing the Criminal Act of 1997. The new Act, besides other changes, substantially alters the enforcement process as it relates to acts which violate IP rights.

Google is at the heart of the debate on patent reform in the United States. Last month, James Nurton spoke to the company’s deputy general counsel, patents and patent litigation, Allen Lo, about how its patent strategy has evolved, why it believes there is a troll problem, and what legal changes are needed

In a significant step towards a single New Zealand / Australian patent, the New Zealand government has recently approved the single application and examination process for New Zealand and Australian patent applications.

Allison S Brehm and Damaris M Diaz explain why courts increasingly view California’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act as superseding other trade secrets-related claims

In a recent case the Swiss Federal Patent Court had for the first time the opportunity to decide on a patent infringement case under the doctrine of equivalence. Taking into account the German "Schneidmesser" decisions as well as the British Improver questions, the Federal Patent Court concluded that in consideration of legal certainty the long-established Swiss practice needed the addition of a third question for examining whether there is infringement under the doctrine of equivalence or not. Thus the three equivalency questions to be asked in Switzerland in infringement cases where one or several features of the patent claim are not present but have been replaced by other features are now:

The latest revision to China’s Trademark Law looks to balance the rights of established brands with those of Chinese entrepreneurs. Loke-Khoon Tan and David Wu examine the most important changes and what they mean for brand owners in China

The Korean Supreme Court recently issued an en banc decision on the issue of whether a mark that comprises both an English word and its Korean transliteration would be considered identical to a mark that is comprised solely of an English word (Supreme Court Case No 2012 HU 2463, September 26 2013).