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On January 1 2013, Singapore signed a third patent prosecution highway (PPH) pilot programme. The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) created a PPH pilot with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). This follows two similar programmes that were signed in 2009, with the USPTO and JPO. Both programmes were extended in 2010 and are still running.

A Russian applicant obtained a trade mark registration with priority of November 24 2010 for goods in class 9 and services in classes 35, 37, 40, 41. The trade mark includes a word element in Cyrilic, рай для фотографа, which means "photographer's paradise".

On February 28 2013, President Benigno Aquino signed into law Republic Act 10372, amending certain provisions of the Intellectual Property Code. Act 10372 takes effect on March 22 2013 or 15 days after its publication date of March 7 2013. Some of the major amendments to the IP Code are as follows:

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) offers many advantages, including that it delays the costs associated with foreign filings by up to 18 months. One of its shortcomings, though, is that only a single specification is filed, despite there being no such thing as a standard specification that's ideal for all countries.

The statutory requirement in Pakistan patent law that "claim or claims of a complete specification shall relate to a single invention" implies that there may be two inventions housed in one specification but the claims must be directed to one invention only.

On January 18 2013, a new food Standard (Standard 1.2.7 – Nutrition, Health and Related Claims) developed by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) came into force.

In a case at the Court of Appeal in The Hague in February, Danisco sought to invalidate a patent owned by Novozymes, while Novozymes counterclaimed for infringement. During the Dutch proceedings, the patent was invalidated by the EPO Board of Appeal. The Dutch judgment then only dealt with the issue of whether Danisco could seek reimbursement of its litigation costs.

In the past three years, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property has increased the number of office actions objecting to a claimed invention due to a lack of support in the description, which has resulted in the conclusion that applicant is seeking a greater scope of protection than originally claimed.

Apioneer batch of 20 people comprising IP professionals, bankers, accountants and venture capitalists commenced training on IP valuation in March this year. The training is being jointly organised by the Malaysian IP Office (MyIPO) and the government agency responsible for driving the ICT industry in Malaysia, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC). The intensive training modules were formulated in collaboration with local IP professionals and IP valuation experts and trainers from Switzerland, the UK and the United States.

The Committee on Price Negotiation of Patented Drugs released a draft proposal recently. In it, the Committee has very clearly noted the difficulty it faces. On the one hand, the prices of patented drugs in India are high compared to other countries, when normalised based on gross national income with purchasing power parity. On the other hand, unilateral fixing of prices by the Government may stop the patented drug being available.