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In 1892 Germany and Switzerland agreed upon a Convention about the mutual protection of IP rights. According to article 5(1), legal disadvantages that occur under the laws of the contracting parties when an invention, a design or a trade mark has not been implemented, reproduced or used within a certain period of time shall be precluded if the corresponding action took place in the territory of the other party. The result is that in front of the German patent office and German civil courts the genuine use of a German trade mark, including international registrations with effect in Germany, can be proven by submission of proof of use in Switzerland and vice versa.

Article 84 of the European Patent Convention (EPC) governs the clarity and conciseness of the claims in a European patent. It is well known that objections to the clarity of a claim cannot constitute a ground of opposition under article 100. However, clarity issues can be taken up in opposition proceedings by means of article 103.

Croatia shares borders with the EU, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. National Customs regulations provide Customs officials with discretion with regards to detention of goods in transit that are suspected to infringe IP rights.

Article 10.1.8 of the PRC Trademark Law provides that where a trade mark is detrimental to socialist morals or customs, or has other adverse effects, it shall not be approved for trade mark registration. The PRC Supreme Court's No 12 Opinion (2010) further clarifies that the "other adverse effects" refer to when the mark or its elements would likely raise negative and unhealthy influences on China's political, economic, cultural, religious and ethnic public interests and public order. However, Chinese laws do not provide specific criteria for deciding these adverse effects.

SIPO published an amendment proposal on the Patent Examination Guidelines 2010 on February 4 2013, and invites comments from the public by March 18 2013.

In its judgment on October 13 2011 (Airfield), the Court of Justice of the EU ruled on whether satellite television providers must obtain the consent of copyright holders for their communication of programmes to the public.

The Austrian Supreme Court on January 24 gave some guidance on how the remuneration due to an employee for his invention is to be calculated. In an action for a declaratory judgment the question put to it was with regard to an employee inventor of a company 100% owned by a parent company in a group of companies. The subsidiary company, the employer, has its own responsibilities in the group, namely for the economic area of central and eastern Europe (CEE) and worldwide for certain products.

boundaries of patentable subject matter, the Federal Court of Australia recently pronounced on gene patents and business method patents.

In previous briefings – the most recent one published in the December 2012-January 2013 edition of Managing Intellectual Property – we have analysed the liability of internet search engines, as determined by a series of judicial decisions.

Under the old, 1996 Act, trade mark proprietors lost their rights if registrations were not renewed within six months of expiry. Section 88 of the new Act now makes provision for an application to restore lapsed trade mark registrations within the two months following the six-month grace period.