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Copyright holders, barring some setbacks, have been successful in securing stricter legal protections for their works, but one report argues that it hasn’t yielded any tangible results

WIPO is planning to open five new offices around the world next year one each in China, Russia and the United States and two in Africa.

Last month, the Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit urged district courts to do more to tackle frivolous patent litigation. Vernon M Winters explains what measures are available, and how they can be used better

Patrick Sands and Thor North explain the most important changes for patent filers brought about by Australia’s Raising the Bar amendment

In September, Finland will become the first Nordic country to have a specialised IP court. Petri Rinkinen and Kim Parviainen explain how it will work

Recent amendments will encourage brand owners to register trade marks in Lithuania more responsibly, put them to genuine use and defend them more actively, explain Ruta Pumputiene and Jurgita Randakeviciute

Trade secrets are an increasingly important part of a company’s IP portfolio. But IP owners need to ensure their secrets are afforded maximum protection. Michael Warnecke explains how they should do it

In several cases, a trade mark cannot be registered, even if it has sufficient distinctiveness, because there is an identical or similar trade mark previously registered or applied for to distinguish the same goods or services. Even though the Trade Mark Law does not specifically use the terms "confusion or likelihood of confusion", its main purpose is to avoid this situation. Section 3 of the Law says that a trade mark identical or similar to one previously registered or applied for to distinguish the same goods or services cannot be registered.

In April this year, the Beijing High Court published Top 10 Intellectual Property Cases of 2012, one of which involved the responsibility of a group-purchase website for trade mark infringement. In this case, our firm represents the plaintiff, who is the owner of the mark Le Coq Sportif and device registered for shoes etc in China. The Supreme Court later included the case in the Top 50 Intellectual Property Cases of 2012 .

Filing a Belgian patent application presents several major advantages to applicants. Indeed, filing a Belgian patent application only involves the payment of a very low filing fee (€50) and a search fee (€300), these two fees being sufficient to obtain, after only a formal examination, a granted Belgian patent within two or three years of the filing date. This means that an invention may be protected on the Belgian territory in a short time and at a low cost.