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Amending patent applications in China can be difficult. Wang Guilian, a serving examiner of SIPO’s Patent Reexamination Board, offers some advice on how to get it right

Registering a pure colour as a trade mark is no less controversial than colour lending distinctiveness to high-heeled shoes. The cases have largely been played out in the UK and Australia, with Cadbury and Nestlé at the centre of several over the past few years.

IP owners will be pleased with the Court of Justice’s ruling last month on when goods suspected of infringement can be seized by Customs. The points on proving infringement are much more tricky, says James Nurton

Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Darrel Issa have introduced the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) to compete with two other anti-piracy bills now working their way through Congress.

Litigation in Thailand has often been stigmatised as lengthy, expensive, cumbersome and convoluted. Indeed, the weight of this fear burdens not so much the infringers of IP rights but, disproportionately more in fact, brand owners themselves.

Keeping pace with changing times, the Malaysian Government recently passed the Trade Descriptions Act, 2011 (TDA). The Act aims to tighten trade mark enforcement provisions by prohibiting false trade descriptions and false or misleading statements, conducts and practices in relation to goods or services, thereby protecting the interest of consumers.

In a recently published decision of May 10 2011 (Okklusionsvorrichtung), the German Federal Court of Justice (FCJ, Bundesgerichtshof) confirmed existing case law concerning the precedence of the claim over the description in a patent.

Wim Van der Eijk has been appointed vice president of the European Patent Office, in charge of the Boards of Appeal. Van der Eijk, 54, will take over from Peter Messerli, who is retiring at the end of November after 15 years in the role. The appointment is for five years. Before joining the EPO, he was chief legal officer of the Netherlands Patent Office and manager of its patent division. He also worked in the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands, as well as serving as an honorary judge at the District Court of The Hague, In April this year, Messerli received Managing IP magazine's Outstanding Achievement Award.

The growth rate of ccTLDs in 2011 increased by more than 10%, meaning the downward trend in registrations that began in 2007 is beginning to reverse.

Bipartisan legislation to crack down on online IP infringement has come under attack from campaigners and businesses who claim the bills go too far and are unenforceable. S-968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property (PROTECT IP) Act and House Bill HR-3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, target infringing offshore web sites by taking action against third-party facilitators, such as domain name registrars and credit card processors. Katherine Oyama, policy counsel for Google told a House Judiciary Committee meeting chaired by Lamar Smith of Texas that the definition of a rogue site is “overbroad”. Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of the Business Software Alliance, has said that more work needs to be done. The White House has also declined to endorse the legislation.