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On February 8 2010, the mark Juicy Love was published for opposition in the E-Gazette of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL). Juicy Couture and LC Licensing of the United States filed a motion for extension of time to file a verified opposition on March 9 2010, and subsequently filed two more extensions of 30 days each as allowed by the inter partes rules then in force. Finally, on the last day, June 8 2010, Juicy Couture filed its verified opposition, but failed to pay the filing fees. Henc the Director of the Bureau of Legal Affairs (BLA) dismissed the opposition citing as basis Section 7.2 of the rules, which provides that the prescribed fees shall be paid upon the filing of the opposition; otherwise, the opposition shall be considered as not filed. Juicy Couture filed a motion for reconsideration, and also paid the filing fees which it claimed it had inadvertently overlooked. The Director denied the motion for reconsideration.

The risk of genericism is a real one for many trade mark owners. John Wilks and Kate Oldroyd explain what you can do to avoid it

US trade mark law allows for the filing of a trade mark application based on a bona fide intention to use the mark on or in connection with the specified goods or services listed in the application. The filing of an intent-to-use-based application provides a significant benefit to trade mark owners as it allows them to obtain a priority date as of the date of filing while they develop their business under such mark. This can protect the owner from the subsequent adoption of a confusingly similar mark by a third party during the time period between when the owner has filed its application and when it has put the mark into use. The ability to file an application on an intent-to-use basis can, therefore, be crucial to the development of a brand owner's business.

Companies' competitive power is related – to a great extent – to their capacity and ability to generate and manage technological and commercial information and knowledge. Under certain circumstances, that information needs to be kept confidential, for example: when it entails a competitive advantage over third parties; when the less the knowledge is disclosed the more its economic value increases; and when it implies the power to disclose that information to other interested parties willing to pay for said disclosure.

A new EU Anti-Piracy Regulation is set to enter into force on January 1. Hidde Koenraad looks at the main changes, and what rights owners can benefit from them

The Indonesia Internet Domain Name Administrator (PANDI) says that they are drafting the newest regulation regarding the use of the ccTLD .id (known as "anything.id") which will be finished and released at the beginning of 2014.

The Tasman Sea is a small strip of water separating New Zealand and Australia. These days it is looking even smaller.

For biotechnology and pharmaceutical inventions, it is common practice to generalise experimental findings into a conceptual teaching by using functional features in patent claims. Applicants can thereby obtain protection not only for specific embodiments disclosed in the patent specification, but also for undisclosed embodiments – including future embodiments – which fairly make use of the invention. However, functional features frequently encounter scepticism from examiners. Such claims are often rejected as excessively broad and not sufficiently disclosed, allegedly because the claimed subject matter may not be realised by the skilled person across the full breadth of claim without an undue burden.

As is probably the case in all jurisdictions, a design as intellectual property belongs primarily to its creator. In the case of a team of designers (all natural persons) this leads to a shared property with several owners. In the case of a formal acknowledgement of that ownership in a design register, these creators or designers will be entered as owners.

Antitrust lawyers and regulators are paying more attention than ever to the way in which IP owners use their patents. James Brelsford, James Keyte, Sharis Pozen and Sean Tepe explain what they are looking for