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Using examples of drugs and companies, Dr Andreas Persidis gives tips on how to establish a systematic drug repositioning programme

Shamnad Basheer describes the power of transparency in the Indian IP system. In short order it has reduced corruption, improved the quality of attorneys and helped IP stakeholders in general

With more generic companies looking to launch drugs before patents expire, Nick Andrews and Hitesh Patel calculate the financial risk they are taking

The battle for the Village People in Newport, dancing on the streets in Sierra Leone and an odd way to deal with a Situation

The in-house counsel Developing and maintaining a working relationship with Customs authorities is a powerful tool in stopping the shipment of counterfeit products. Ideally, if a company has problems with counterfeit products, it should employ staff who can regularly meet with and interact with Customs authorities with the aim of encouraging authorities to take action on the import or export of suspicious items.

On April 1 2011, Ministry of Finance of Vietnam (MOF) promulgated Circular 44/2011/TT-BTC guiding the anti-counterfeiting tasks and protection measures for IP rights at Customs. The Circular provides detailed procedures, actions and documents to be submitted to specific Customs Offices (CO) or the General Customs Department (GCD) under the supervision of the Ministry, requesting the CO/GCD to apply necessary statutory measures at the border gates for protection of rights of IP holders. Such measures would be some or all of the following: control on import-export goods related to IP rights, temporary suspension of customs procedure, customs inspection and supervision.

Residual goodwill is the association that a consumer has between a trade mark that may no longer be in active use and its original source. The legal implications of a trade mark's residual goodwill often become significant when third parties attempt to secure rights to it to profit from consumers' nostalgia for older brands. Typically, a new party hoping to revitalise an otherwise dormant trade mark will take steps to cancel the owner's registration based on allegations of abandonment.

The Department of Intellectual Property of Thailand opened its doors to PCT applications on December 24 2009. Since then, any PCT application filed on or after 24 December 2009 has automatically included the designation of Thailand.

We reported previously in this column how Société des Produits Nestlé sued for a preliminary injunction prohibiting the retail discounter Denner from selling and advertising coffee capsules compatible with Nestlé's Nespresso coffee machines that were similar in appearance to the Nespresso coffee capsules. Nestlé's claims were based on a three-dimensional trade mark registration for the capsule shape, on a trade mark registration for the mark What Else? and on unfair competition law. The first instance judge granted the injunction in ex parte proceedings, but subsequently essentially revoked it in inter partes proceedings. The judge considered Denner's argumentation persuasive that the form registered in Nestlé's 3D trade mark cannot be granted trade mark protection because it is technically necessary, in particular for capsules intended to be compatible with Nespresso coffee machines. Nestlé on the other hand argued that the conical shape of its coffee capsule registration is not technically necessary for compatibility with Nespresso coffee machines or other machines, and that a number of alternative, different Nespresso-compatible capsule shapes exist, so that its trade mark registration was valid.

The Singapore patent system provides several options for completing the search and examination procedure: