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In a show of sympathy to Japanese IP rights holders whose activities may have been disrupted by the calamities which visited Japan starting March 11 2011, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) issued Office Order 53, series of 2011 entitled Accomodations for Patent and Trademark Applicants, Owners and Agents Affected by the Calamity in Japan, which was published on April 2 2011 and took effect on the same day. Patent filings in the Philippines from Japan are the second largest, after the US, hence the decision of the IPOPHL to be more liberal and promote goodwill.

The enforcement of registered trade marks in Mexico is constantly evolving. No more than three years ago Mexican Customs set up a department to alert IP owners of shipments of potential counterfeits. Now, in 2011, the Customs Authority is finalising the first steps to run a project with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) that merges the database of registered trade marks with that of Customs to create an intelligence tool to be used by customs officials in the review of goods imported into the country or in transit to other countries in the Americas.

The year began with a judgment over a patent law dispute involving the Tai family of Malaysia (Soon Seng Palm Oil Mill (Gemas) Sdn Bhd and others v Jang Kim Luang @ Yeo Kim Luang and others). The action revolves around a process patent for "the extraction of intrinsic fibers from waste material left behind after palm oil extraction. The intrinsic fibres of the empty fruits are recycled to create medium density fibre wood boards and mulching mats".

As from the beginning of March 2011, the Italian Patent Office (IPO) has started issuing its first examination reports on Italian patent applications not claiming a foreign priority.

In Israel, IP issues are heard by one of six District Courts and are appealable to the Supreme Court. Recent decisions are worrying, not so much because the verdicts are wrong, but because the judges displayed an ignorance of IP Law.

The protection of a partial industrial design involves the protection of a specific part of a design that is considered novel and applied to a product: automobile components for example, like front or rear combination lamps, or the bumper.

Finally, on March 25 2011, the Indian Patent Office (IPO) released the final version of the Manual of Patent Practice and Procedure (MPPP).

The OHIM cancellation division recently applied Article 7(1)(d) of the Community Trade Mark Regulation in invalidity proceedings and upheld an interpretation of that provision where a trade mark's registrability is precluded not only in cases where the mark is "exclusively" composed of a sign or an indication that has become customary in the current language or in the bona fide and established practices of the trade, but also where the rest of the elements are not sufficient to counteract the generic character of the "characterising" component of the trade mark concerned.

In Ferrero SpA v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) (March 24 2011), the Court of Justice of the EU (CJ) has upheld the finding of the General Court that the word mark Kinder and the figurative mark TiMi Kinderjoghurt were not similar.

The Court of Justice of the EU has held that a trade mark owner can prohibit an advertiser from using his trade mark as a keyword, without his consent, whenever the advert does not enable an average internet user to ascertain whether the goods or services originate from the trade mark owner or from a third party (Case 236-08/238-08).