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According to Polish law the right of protection for a trade mark lapses on failure to put it to genuine use for the goods covered by the registration for a period during five successive years, unless serious reasons of non-use exist. Preparations for the use of the trade mark are not sufficient and the five-year period begins the day after a decision on granting protection rights is issued, in case the owner has not used the trade mark, or if the trade mark had been in use, on the date its genuine use was abandoned.

On April 25 2012 the President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III, signed the Instrument of Accession of the Philippines to the Madrid Protocol, which is expected to take effect in the Philippines on July 25 2012. Prior to this date, the Intellectual Property Office (IPOPHL) prepared for the accession by improving its trade mark registration processing time, and meeting with various stakeholders to explain the system, and obtain reactions to it.

A new act governing the Norwegian Industrial Property Office will come into force from January 1 2013. The act provides changes for the organisation of the Board of Appeal, oral procedures and the possibility to award legal costs during administrative review.

New Zealand's chief High Court judge recently re-affirmed the courts' disapproval of fishing expeditions by parties during discovery. The decision also highlighted the difficulties of suing only the contributory infringer in proceedings for infringement of process or use style claims.

Not many patent cases have caused so much uproar as the 'broccoli' and 'tomato' cases that were decided last year by the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO. Recently, the European Parliament has interfered by issuing a resolution on the patenting of essential biological processes. In this resolution, the Parliament says that patent laws should not prevent breeders from using a protected plant for further breeding activities, similar to the regulation in the UPOV convention.

Having spent years litigating IP matters, I have shared the frustration of clients who have been forced to intervene in administrative litigation because they are being frivolously accused of having committed an administrative infringement; their trademarks have been misappropriated; or their IP rights are being attacked in an ungrounded manner, through counterclaims that are filed in response to infringement actions previously filed by the owner of the IP right.

In the recent decision of Super Cassettes Industries v Music Broadcast, the Supreme Court overturned a finding by the Delhi High Court that permitted the Copyright Board to grant an interim compulsory licence to a copyright in any Indian work.

A new law has been enacted in Greece by virtue of which the previous Trademark Law has been extensively amended. But because of several administrative changes that need to be made, the new law will not come into effect until October 11 2012.

On October 1 2009, an amendment to the law on costs in patent affairs came into force in Germany. Previously no claim fees existed at the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO). The amended law regulates that every claim in excess of 10 claims incurs increased filing fees (electronic filing: €20/claim, paper filing: €30/claim). Compared to other jurisdictions, these claim fees are moderate.

French Trademark Law provides for the coexistence of a registered trade mark and an identical surname used in the course of trade. To protect against fraud, the latter can use its surname, which is an attribute of its personal rights, as a company name or trade name, excluding trade mark applications. The conditions are good faith and lack of a likelihood of confusion. The coexistence is fair if all precautions are taken against confusion and taking advantage of existing trade marks.