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On March 8 2011, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) published on its website Office Order Number 186 Series of 2010, which amends its regulations on administrative complaints for IP rights violations. The amendments focus on the provisions affecting the issuance of a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction. Under the old rules, a temporary restraining order shall only be issued after all the parties are heard in a summary hearing, which shall be conducted within 24 hours of the sheriff's return of service and after the records are received by the assigned hearing officer. Moreover, under the same old rules, a writ of preliminary injunction shall have a maximum life of 90 days, and after payment of a cash bond.

As we wrote in the previous issue of Managing Intellectual Property, before 1992 Norway did not accept product patents on active ingredients in medicaments, only "analogous method of preparation" claims were accepted. This means that there will be active patents in Norway comprising such claims until the end of 2011 and Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) throughout 2016.

What is an embryo? Advocate General M Yves Bot provided his opinion on this in case C-34/10 (Brüstle v Greenpeace).

Good news for applicants in Mexico of patents claiming Paris Convention priority or PCT applications. On March 1 2011 the Mexican Patent and Trademark Office launched a pilot programme under which the Patent Department will accept examinations by United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

In a significant victory for rice growers and exporters, India has won a trade mark row against a Malaysian firm that was granted registration for the mark Ponni for rice, a premium aromatic variety developed and grown in Tamil Nadu, India since 1971.

The Hong Kong government has promoted Peter Cheung Kam-fai to replace Stephen Selby as director of the territory’s IP department.

The Israel Patent Law is anomalous in that pending applications do not publish automatically 18 months after priority. Only after allowance is an abstract published and the file becomes available for inspection. However, basic details of new patent filings, including the name of applicant, title, priority and filing dates were required by law, to be published in the Official Israel Patent Office Gazette (Reshumot in Hebrew) shortly after filing.

Along with the development of science and technology that affects economic competition in the global market, and to implement the provisions of International Treaties, in 2010 the Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights of the Department of Justice and Human Rights prepared a draft amendment to law number 14 of 2001 concerning patents. Its main purpose is to provide an ordinance to protect the interests of the inventor of patents and improvements in the Patent Law Regulations.

Thomas Pattloch has left his post as IP officer at the EU delegation to China and Mongolia in Beijing to join the Munich office of UK full-service law firm TaylorWessing.

The Delhi High Court, in Tata Sons v Greenpeace, recently denied interim injunction to Tata Sons, in an action that sought a permanent injunction and damages amounting to Rs100 million ($2.17 million) against Greenpeace. Tata has initiated an action for infringement of trade mark and defamation and disparagement against Greenpeace. The cause of action for the case arose from a game, modeled around the popular Pac-man game, named Turtle v TATA, that depicts turtles being chased by the Tata logo. The game was intended to raise awareness on the alleged adverse impact of the Dhamra Port Project, a joint venture project between Tata Sons and Larsen and Toubro, on Olive Ridley turtles.