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French emperor Napoleon could hardly have predicted that the battle he fought near the small Russian village of Borodino in 1812 would have repercussions through the centuries and in fields completely unrelated to warfare.

Not too long ago, the Bucharest Court of Appeals maintained two decisions of the Re-examination Commission from the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (SOIT) by which the national (Romanian) trade mark applications Goldhopfer and Goldenhop were rejected for goods in class 32 (beers) due to a conflict with the earlier trade marks Golden Brau, registered in the name of the well-known beer manufacturer Heineken.

After two years of review, the Supreme Court of the Philippines issued the Rules of Procedure for Intellectual Property Rights Cases, which took effect on November 8 2011. These rules, governing civil and criminal actions, were proposed by the Intellectual Property Office (IPPHL) with the objective of reducing counterfeiting in the Philippines. The highlights of these new rules are as follows:

An agreement for a patent prosecution highway (PPH) between the Norwegian Industrial Property Office and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) entered into force on November 1 2011.

On September 1 2011, the provisions of the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act came into force in New Zealand.

In a recent decision in August, T923/08, a Technical Board of Appeal (TBA) had to decide on a method for measuring parameters on a human or animal body, in particular measuring the length of a femur. For this method a device is essential, which is connected to the body, for example to a hip bone, in a surgical step. As this step is completed before the measuring of the parameters, it is not part of the measuring method and thus, is not a feature of the claim. The TBA, however, counters that, as confirmed by the applicant, the measuring method would not be possible without the bone-fixed device. Therefore, according to the TBA, the surgical step is an indispensable part of the claimed method and has to be incorporated into the claim; otherwise, the claim lacks clarity and is not allowable.

Under the Mexican Trademark Law there is no obligation to use a trade mark until it is time for renewal, 10 years after the filing date of the registration. When filing the application for renewal it is only necessary to declare under oath that the mark has been used during a term of the last three years.

One week from the initial term for submitting applications (November 2 2011), incentives from the Ministry of Economic Development are still available for small and medium-sized Italian enterprises for the filing and exploitation of IP rights.

Shmuel Rachmani is a photographer who was affiliated with the Ma’ariv newspaper over several years. Some of the time he was associated as a freelance photographer and some of the time he was engaged an employee. Rachmani’s contract with Ma’ariv left the copyright in all the photos with him.

In October 2011, WIPO organised a workshop on the PCT in cooperation with the Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights (DGIPR) Indonesia in Bogor, Indonesia. On the same occasion, a speaker from the DGIPR Indonesia presented on the development of the utilisation of PCT systems in Indonesia. The statistics provided by the DGIPR illustrated that the number of patent applications through the PCT route is increasing steadily in Indonesia (with the DGIPR as designated office). On the other hand, domestic applicants have not been making use of the ease and speed of the PCT system; this is proven by the small number of patent applications by domestic applicants filed through the PCT (with the DGIPR as receiving office).