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Under the EPC and Belgian law, granted European patents must be validated within three months of the date on which the mention of the grant, maintenance in amended form or limitation is published in the European Patent Bulletin. According to the Belgian Patent Office, validation requires filing a translation into any one of the three official languages in Belgium: French, Dutch, or German. Belgium is not a party to the London Agreement. In practice, only those European patents written in English require a translation.

In a recent decision, the Austrian Patent Appeal Board had to decide whether an internet disclosure was proven to be published before the priority date of the patent in suit. In this decision, the Board clarified that disclosures on the internet certainly do belong to the prior art. However, in view of the volatility of disclosures published on the internet, there is high standard of proof for the party relying on the internet publication.

The Australian Patent Office has introduced a further issues paper as a prelude to further amendments to the Patents Act 1990. Given previous practice, the proposed changes are likely to be introduced verbatim into the Act.

As previously explained (Managing IP, September 2012), Argentine legislation regulating the protection of test data (Law 24.766 -Confidentiality Law, Executive Order 150/92 and Article 39.3 of the TRIPs Agreement) allows third-party reliance on information concerning the safety and efficacy of a product , reliance that is not authorised by the originator of the data.

Alejandro Luna of Olivares & Cía advises Mexico’s R&D pharmaceutical association AMIIF. In July he attended the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on its behalf. He tells Emma Barraclough about the experience

China’s National IP Strategy has its share of critics, especially when it comes to incentives for patent filings. Xianjie Ding and Di Yao argue, however, that despite legitimate concerns about a patent bubble, there is also significant progress being made

The UK IP Office has published a report on the impact of lookalikes on brand owners and consumers. Alastair Shaw explains why it could be a milestone on the road to legislation

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the EPO’s decision to amend a patent has retrospective effect, rescuing a defendant from potentially large damages. Huw Evans and Seiko Hidaka explain the significance of the ruling

China’s National IP Strategy is now in its sixth year. Thomas Pattloch, former EU IP officer in Beijing, examines its effect on China’s IP system from an international perspective

The Novartis case shone a spotlight on India’s unique patent system. Deepa Kachroo Tiku and Taapsi Johri Singh explore the questions and uncertainties raised by the controversial decision