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The general test for anticipation in the Pakistan Patents Ordinance 2000 is that an invention must not form part of the "state of the art"; that is it must not be disclosed to the public anywhere in the world by publication in tangible form, by oral disclosure, use or in any other way. Whether or not such a disclosure is enabling or makes the underlying technology available to the public is not decisive. Given this, a prior generic disclosure of a new chemical entity (NCE) in the so-called Markush grouping claim format, followed by a specific listing or enumeration of a 'species' is anticipatory whether or not the 'species' is actually made and tested or could not be made or tested by the person skilled in the art. On the other hand, because of the statutory exclusion of new or subsequent uses of a known product or process from the scope of patentable subject matter, such a disclosure 'as such' does not give rise to a right to re-claim the invention in a later patent even if its subsequent use in the same or a different field is not anticipatory.

On December 10 2012 the Madrid Protocol takes effect in New Zealand and can be designated by overseas companies wishing to protect their brands in New Zealand.

The Dutch Supreme Administrative Court has decided that the requirement to file a translation of a European patent into Dutch is not a violation of the TRIPs or PCT treaties.

Several years ago I wrote an article arguing that Mexico needed a trade mark opposition procedure. Today, given our imminent accession to the Madrid Protocol, it is even more important – and is needed anyway to provide more certainty to trade mark owners.

On October 10 2012 the Karnataka High Court passed an interim injunction in favour of Homag India (the plaintiff), restraining its former employee (first defendant) and his new employer (second defendant) from engaging in any business that uses the confidential information of the plaintiff, whether in the form of technical data, information pertaining to pricing, customer lists or know-how relating to certain products.

In a recent judgment, the Athens First Instance Court accepted a preliminary injunction action filed by various collecting societies representing producers and authors of works against various internet service providers (ISPs) and granted an injunction containing technological measures against them.

Article 4 of the EU SPC Regulation only grants purpose-bound protection for SPCs (special purpose certificates). Nevertheless, the specific drug's use (its purpose) is supposedly of no relevance concerning the obtaining provisions in article 3, as held by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in Yissum, where the court declined to recognise a marketing authorisation (MA) for a new medicinal indication of a formerly authorised substance as the first MA in terms of article 3(d). This appears to be contradictory.

From December 1, Australia will adopt plain packaging for tobacco products – a standardised pack on which is printed the trade mark in standard size, font and place, with no logo and no colour. The aim is to knock out the attractive appearance of the packaging, supposedly suggesting a "glamorous" world of tobacco.

Eight years ago, the Beijing High Court rejected Apple Inc's application for its bitten apple trade mark in class 25, due to a prior registered apple trade mark in the same class owned by a Chinese company, regardless of the high reputation of the opposed trade mark all over the world, including China.

On August 1 2012, the Administrative Measures for Prioritised Examination of Patent Applications for Inventions came into force, which will allow invention patent applications to be examined in an expedited manner. Under the Measures, the prioritised examination procedure will last less than a year and the first office action will be issued within 30 working days, from from the date on which the prioritised examination is granted.