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On November 14 2011, China issued The 2012 Plan to Boost the National Patent Industry Development Strategy, aimed at carrying out and implementing the National Intellectual Property Strategy Outline relating to patents, so as to facilitate the effective integration of patent work as part of economic and social development.

OHIM’s new mediation service in appeal proceedings in inter partes proceedings entered into force on October 23 2011. With this voluntary service, the parties are invited to reach a friendly settlement by filing a request to the Board of Appeal (BoA), which is the body in charge of the mediation service. Both parties, or their representatives, must sign the request for mediation, or otherwise show that the consent of the other party has been obtained. The mediation will be free of charge when conducted in OHIM’s office in Alicante. There is also the possibility to hold it at OHIM’s office in Brussels, where the Gevers headquarters are situated, for an administrative charge of €750.

This war concerns the use of the sign Bud and was fought between the famous brewery in Ceske Budejovice distributing its Budweiser Bier, famous in Austria, and an Austrian importer of American Bud and Bud Light from Anheuser-Bush. The case had been, with different legal questions, twice before the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) and three times before the Austrian Supreme Court (OGH).

The generic pharmaceutical industry had a recent victory on appeal, in Sigma Pharmaceuticals (Australia) v Wyeth, overturning Wyeth’s patent for the extended-release version of the antidepressant drug Effexor-XR.

As explained in our November briefing article, before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Culture issued Resolution 654/09 on November 2009 that modified Rule 11 of the Rules for the Registration of Domain Names under the country code .ar, the only way to tackle domain name disputes was a court action.

South Africa is a multi-million rand market for complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs), but they are not regulated by the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965. However, proposed amendments to the General Regulations in terms of the Act may alter this situation radically, with CAMs becoming subject to regulation by the Medicine Control Council (MCC) of South Africa. The MCC has in turn published guidelines outlining the consequences and requirements that will face the manufacturers of CAMs, which can be summarised as follows.

As director of product management at VeriSign, Sarah Langstone is responsible for educating brands about the new gTLD programme and said she has no time to rest before the application period opens

The Association for Molecular Pathology has asked the US Supreme Court to consider whether isolated DNA sequences are patentable under US law

On Thursday, the Court of Justice’s legal adviser will issue his opinion in a dispute over the ownership of IP rights in football league fixture lists. Managing IP provides a preview

A US government official has defended Icann following the Senate hearing on gTLDs last week where senators said the US government could not unilaterally stop the programme.