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A new dispute resolution proceeding for domain names named Syreli entered into force on November 21 2011. Then, on December 6 2011 the registration of .fr was extended to all persons located in the EU, Norway, Gibraltar, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. New extensions have also been opened:

While FICPI and other stakeholders have once again appealed to legislators to reconsider a variety of issues around the envisaged unified EU patent system, most observers have good reason to fear that the proposal, including a unified patent court, will be rushed through under the current Danish EU presidency.

In a recent decision the Austrian Supreme Court decided a dispute between the trade mark owners of Oral B and Dr Best. Both companies produce toothbrushes. The dispute focused on the construction of the provision of the Austrian Trade Mark Act which corresponds to Article 12 of the Community Trade Mark Regulation, on limitations of the effects of a trade mark if use of a mark is necessary to indicate the intended purpose of the product, in particular as a spare part.

As part of major international patent litigation, Samsung has prevailed over Apple in Australia in a preliminary injunction skirmish.

Protection of test data is very relevant to quality protection and, therefore, health protection. In this regard, regulations securing the quality of pharmaceutical products have not evolved in Argentina as they have done in countries with better sanitary vigilance.

Recently, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has called on the South African government to revise the South African Patents Act to reduce the patent protection available to pharmaceutical inventions, which the organisation believes is responsible for the high cost of medicines and a delay in the availability of generic medicines. TAC refers to the Doha Declaration, which was signed by South Africa as a member of the World Trade Organisation, to support its call.

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Former USPTO commissioner for patents Robert Stoll has joined Drinker Biddle & Reath's IP practice in Washington DC. Stoll retired from the Office at the end of 2011 after 29 years with the Office. Margaret 'Peggy' Focarino was named the new commissioner for patents.

The most senior politician in the US government agency that gives Icann power over delegating new gTLDs said he may push for more trade mark protection measures in April 2012. Lawrence Strickling, assistant secretary at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), wrote to Icann in January to express his concerns about brands being unaware of existing protection measures.

Microsoft has launched two pioneering copyright lawsuits in China in an attempt to deal with the problem of rampant software piracy. The cases were filed against Shanghai Gome, a branch of one of China's largest retailers, and Beijing Chaoyang Buynow, a shopping mall in, respectively, Shanghai Huangpu District People's Court and Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court. Microsoft claimed that it had evidence of pirated copies of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office being pre-installed in computers sold by Shanghai Gome and by two of the retailers in the Buynow shopping mall. The filing against the Beijing shopping mall is the first time the principle of landlord liability has been applied to copyright infringement in China. If successful, it could lead to a series of similar cases. The US software company has had some notable successes in the last few years in its attempts to crack down on piracy, including sending 11 people to jail after a decision by a court in Shenzhen in January 2009 in a case that involved what the company called the biggest counterfeiting operation it had ever seen.