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Following on from the recent substantive changes to obviousness under our Patents Act, the Patents Office has now sought to introduce further changes to the Act, likely to affect Australian patent rights.

The price drop of original medicinal products in Greece has always been triggered by the expiry of the first patent covering the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) of the product in question.

The revised European Patent Convention (EPC2000) introduced a review procedure for Boards of Appeal decisions by the Enlarged Board of Appeal (Article 112a EPC). The grounds on which a review may take place are rather limited. Among other things, parties adversely affected by a decision in appeal can file a petition for review on the grounds that a violation of the right to be heard occurred during proceedings before the Board of Appeal.

Over the past few years trade mark protection in the Middle East has become more attractive to brand owners worldwide. And with increasing demand for more comprehensive trade mark protection, it has become more and more important to consider issues of local language and culture.

It is common practice for computer games to feature likenesses of sports teams (for example PS3 All Blacks Rugby Challenge) or sports stars (such as Michael Jordan in NBA 2K11 for PS3). But what happens when the creators of a game use an athlete's likeness without permission?

Netherlands comes ahead of a case that is awaiting a decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO (G 2/12): are plants that are obtained as a result of an "essentially biological process" patentable subject matter?

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has announced that a two-year pilot patent prosecution highway (PPH) programme between Singapore and China is targeted to start on September 1 2013. IPOS are therefore taking further steps to increase collaborations with other patent offices to reduce duplication of work and speed up the patent application process.

Cable television system operators retransmitted terrestrial channels, including channels subject to mandatory retransmission pursuant to the Broadcasting Act, without providing any payment to the relevant terrestrial broadcasters in Korea. Therefore, on September 10 2009, KBS, MBC and SBS (the three terrestrial broadcasting stations) filed a preliminary injunction seeking the suspension and prevention of various infringements against a major operator, alleging that the retransmission infringed their copyright (the right of broadcasting from the rights of communications to the public) and neighbouring rights (simultaneous relay broadcasting rights).

The use of expert witnesses in patent cases, and the emphasis put on them, varies between jurisdictions and even judges. What reforms are needed?

On March 8 2013, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) issued a notice to its examiners regarding the examination of computer-implemented inventions for determining patent-eligible subject matter. This notice follows the Federal Court of Appeal decision in Canada (Attorney General) v Amazon.com Inc relating to the patentability of business and computer implemented methods, which resulted in the grant of Amazon.com's one-click patent in January 2012.