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Galel Yassin, an Arab resident of the Palestinian-administered territories imported cheap training shoes from China retailing for about £5 a pair. The shoes included four parallel diagonal stripes on each side. Israel Customs seized the goods, which Adidas claimed were infringing its famous three-stripe logo. The importer offered to add a line crossing through the four stripes, or a big cross on top; the solution to be implemented before the shoes were released from the docks. Adidas rejected both compromises.

The rapid growth of the internet in Indonesia has allowed the emergence of new conflicts that could trigger a breach of domain name and trade mark rights. For example, if a party registers a domain name using the mark of another party of which the registrant is not the trade mark holder, this action constitutes a trade mark infringement. In Indonesia the domain name registration is generally done without prior examination process. The examination performed by the governing body of domain names is merely based on the domain name registered previously.

The Madras High Court, in January this year, admitted a special petition under the Constitution of India (a writ petition) challenging the constitutional validity of the provisions establishing the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB). The IPAB, constituted to take over erstwhile functions of the High Courts in India, is the only statutory appellate body for certain decisions of the Intellectual Property Offices in India.

In an action for infringement of a 3D trade mark, decision 585/2010 of the Athens Multimember Court of First Instance defined the conditions under which a 3D trademark depicting the product that it distinguishes has distinctive character. The court accepted that the plaintiff's filled rolled wafer in the shape of a cigar was innovative, since wafers had previously been flat and without a filling. For this reason, the court found that a three-dimensional trade mark depicting the product has distinctive character.

On November 25 2010, the National Copyright Bureau of China (NCB) promulgated the Measures for Registration of Copyright Pledge, replacing the Measures for Registration of Copyright Pledge Contract of September 23 1996. The new measures came into effect on January 1 2011.

The Australian courts and the Australian Patent Office continue to have divergent views on the level of obviousness required to invalidate a patent. Whilst the Patent Office has attempted to move Australia towards the European so-called "problem and solution" approach, the courts highlight deficiencies in it and refuse to adopt the Office's preferred view.

Article 39.3 of TRIPs establishes that test data required as a condition to approve the marketing of pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical products which use new chemical entities, the origination of which involves a considerable effort, shall be protected against unfair commercial use.

J Kitty Huang presents the results of a survey into attitudes to IP management among Taiwanese companies

The Governmental Advisory Committee’s so-called scorecard for Brussels reveals the body is taking a more moderate approach to consultations on new gTLDs than many thought