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Apple has filed a new claim in the International Trade Commission (ITC) against HTC, asserting five patents involving scrolling functionality and touch-screen displays

A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam – who received the world’s first recorded patent in 1449 diary@managingip.com

A company's use of their brand often extends to several categories of goods or services and, in turn, a company's trade mark filings for such brand typically cover the range of products and services that the company offers. Thus, when a company enters into negotiations to sell part of its business to a third party, namely, selling rights in and to the company's trade mark in connection with certain goods or services while retaining the rights in the mark for other goods and services, the USPTO provides procedures for effecting the associated assignment of rights. These procedures differ depending on the status of the trade mark filing at issue – specifically whether it is a pending application or an issued registration.

While Thailand has been on the Priority Watch List of the Office of the USTR Special 301 Report since 2007, the Royal Thai government has remained steadfast in its commitment to the stronger protection and enforcement of IP rights.

The doctrine of exhaustion of patent rights has long been a grey area of law in Taiwan. The main reason is that there are neither clear provisions in the Patent Law nor precedents.

A decision of the first instance Court of Commerce of the Canton of Zurich had held that the Swiss part of European patent 1 175 904 claiming a dosage regime in the form of a Swiss-type claim ("Use of alendronate in the manufacture of a medicament for treating osteoporosis in a human in need of such treatment, where said medicament is orally administered to said human as a unit dosage comprising about 70mg of the alendronate compound, on an alendronic acid active weight basis, according to a continuous schedule having a once-weekly dosing interval") was not valid as being directed to non-patentable subject matter in view of Article 2 (2a) of the Swiss Patent Act and Article 52(4) EPC 1973.

An individual entrepreneur filed an application for a trade mark Napoleon (application number 2007736513/50) which in itself seems strange. The entrepreneur resided in a far away town of Kirov, which is not known for any French connections. The entrepreneur was aware that Napoleon was a French emperor however he filed his application for the goods to be produced in Russia. The Patent Office refused the registration arguing that the word reproduces the name of a famous historic person, which may be a reason for misleading the Russian consumer with regard to the place of production of the products.

Romanian courts have already set a trend by issuing several definitive decisions that have led to supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) being granted for products that, in light of the latest opinions delivered by the Advocate General Mengozzi, should not qualify for such protection in Romania. However, even if a battle is lost for generic companies, the war is far from being over.

The District Administrative Court in Warsaw in its judgment on March 28 2011 dismissed a complaint against the decision of the Polish Patent Office refusing to grant protection rights for the trade mark Villa Nova.

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has issued for comments proposed revised rules for inter partes cases as part of its wish to provide speedy, high-quality and effective legal remedies and be the forum of choice to resolve IP disputes. These cases include the following: oppositions to applications for the registration of marks; petitions to cancel the registrations of marks, patents, utility model registrations, industrial design registrations, or any claim or parts of a claim, and registrations of topography or layout design of integrated circuits; and petitions for compulsory licensing. The salient points of the proposed rules are: