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Despite guidelines from the Thai courts on determining the identicalness and confusing similarity between trade marks seeking registration and prior marks, one statutory provision remains unclear. The Thai Trademarks Act's prohibition of marks identical or confusingly similar to well-known marks, Section 8, read with Section 8 (10) provides that:

After three readings by the Legislative Yuan, the new Amendment to Taiwan's Trademark Law was passed on May 31 2011, and is expected to take effect beginning June 2012. While the Amendment makes a number of modifications to the Law, the key changes are highlighted below.

A feature of the Singapore patent system which makes it very cost-effective is that a Singapore patent may be obtained based on the search and examination results of a foreign corresponding patent application. Accordingly, it is possible to avoid the costs of a local Singaporean search or local Singaporean search and examination.

Perhaps it is a hangover of years past, but many people still think that a product in a foreign package looks more attractive and is of a better quality than that contained in a domestic one. This is why some applicants file for trade marks in Latin characters. The Russian Patent Office frowns at such attempts, justly believing that consumers will be confused by the Latin registrations and think that the good has been manufactured outside Russia.

The Trademarks Contestations Committee of the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (SOIT) has rejected the challenge filed by the applicant for the national trade mark Bourbon Cocktails & Coffee in class 43, "services for providing food and drink", maintaining the decision of the oppositions division and rejecting the registration, based on the initial opposition filed by Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (Discus), a non-profit organisation from the United States that represents the interests of producers and traders of spirit drinks, including Bourbon whiskey.

On February 23 the Foundation for National Scientific Computing (FCCN), the body responsible for the management, registration and maintenance of .pt domains, announced the liberalisation of .pt domain names from May 1 2012.

On December 13 2005, the Polish Patent Office granted protection for a word trade mark Bio-Active, destined among others for the marketing of body care cosmetics in Class 3. As a result of an opposition filed by a third party, the mark was subsequently cancelled. In its reasoning, the Patent Office argued that Bio-Active is not only devoid of distinctive character, but also descriptive in respect of cosmetics, as it indicates their specific properties. In addition, an average Polish consumer will easily understand the meaning of the term bio-active regardless of the level of fluency in English. The Patent Office also stressed that bio-active is a commonly used term on the Polish market for designating properties of various products, substances or their components.

On February 1 2012, the Intellectual Property Office (IPPHL) uploaded the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for Patents, Utility Models and Industrial Designs, the object of which is to streamline administrative procedures in granting patents and enhance the enforcement of IP rights in the Philippines. One lesser known procedure in opposing patents before grant is the acceptance of observations or adverse information from any person. While this procedure was present in the old IRR, the new IRR gives it more emphasis.

Most New Zealand patent attorney firms (the author's firm included) advise a large number of clients, some of whom may be competitors. The New Zealand patent attorney profession is small and options for representation can be limited. The impact of this has been recognised previously by the New Zealand Court of Appeal in similar cases.

Recently, the Court of Appeal (Hof) at The Hague ruled on the validity of Lundbeck's patent on the antidepressant Escitalopram. The ruling is remarkably different from that in several other countries, particularly in denying the patentability of the product claims.