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A new Designs Act came into force in Norway on July 1 2010, expanding protection to moving designs. So far only a few moving designs have been registered, and the practice in the Norwegian Industrial Property Office as regards such designs is still under development.

The Rugby World Cup 2011 plays out in New Zealand in September and October of this year. It is the third largest sporting event in the world, behind the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup. It is also the biggest test yet of New Zealand's umbrella ambush marketing legislation, the Major Events Management Act 2007. The Act prohibits unauthorised associations between major events and brands, and provides for clean zones and clean transport routes for specific periods around matches.

During the past two years, the Mexican Patent and Trademark Office (IMPI) has established a new criterion on its practice for filling divisional applications due to a unity of invention requirement during substantive examination.

The National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau (NPCB) in Malaysia ensures the quality, efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals through the evaluation of technical data and laboratory test conducted during clinical trial. Upon fulfilment of all safety regulations, approval is given for marketing.

On August 3 2011, the Italian Official Gazette published two announcements of incentives for the filing and exploitation of IP rights. The announcements, one relating to patents for invention and the other relating to industrial designs, are intended for small and medium-sized enterprises with their registered office in Italy, and set aside funds for a total amount of more than €45 million.

Making movies available for downloading without the right holder's permission is copyright infringement. The movie must be hosted before it can be linked to, and such hosting is infringement. However, since films can be uploaded and stored anywhere, it is the internet service providers (ISPs) which link to the pirate films that provide a more effective target to sue to prevent such linking and thereby to minimise downloading than the parties uploading films to the internet.

Trade mark protection that had been regulated by Trademark Law number 15, 2001 is considered to no longer be in line with the global business world. Therefore, the Indonesian government sees the need for revisions to the law. The draft amendment to the trade mark law aims to conform with the provisions of international treaties that have been or may be ratified by Indonesia.

In two recent judgments, the Honourable Delhi High Court granted ex parte injunction orders against innumerable and unnamed defendants to prevent communication of certain cinematograph films to the public, the copyright over which was owned by the plaintiff. The production house in question was Reliance Entertainment and the orders of the Court are dated July 20 2011 (for the film Singham) and August 26 2011 (for the film Bodyguard).

The IP Enforcement Directive had only been implemented in Greece as regards copyright. Its provisions however had been taken into account by the courts when interpreting and applying patent law.

According to the German Patent Act, an applicant or his successor in title may file within 12 months from the filing date of an earlier patent or utility model application a later patent application in Germany, claiming the priority of the first. Under German legal practice, it has been clear for a long time that where the first application is a foreign application, the priority right could be assigned to the applicant of the later German patent application independently of the first foreign application, so without assigning the first. It was unclear whether this is also the case with a national first filing. There was commentary literature that in such cases the applicant (or legal successor) of first and later filing needs to be identical to validly claim a priority. In a recently decided case, the German Federal Patent Court made it clear that the national priority right is also an independent and freely assignable right, which can be validly transferred to a legal successor without assigning the first national application.