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Peter Ollier talks to Doron Ben-Meir, CEO of Commercialisation Australia, a government programme to help start-up companies turn their IP into successful businesses

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

It is established practice to judge the inventive step of an invention using the problem-solution approach developed within the European patent office. Under this approach, a claimed invention has to add an extra feature to the closest prior art. This additional feature defines the problem to be solved by the person skilled in the art. Starting from the closest prior art and facing the problem to be solved, the skilled person has to find a technical solution for the problem. Whether or not he can do so is part of the inventive step discussion.

Sherry Knowles spent four years as chief patent counsel at GlaxoSmithKline after more than a decade in private practice. She tells Emma Barraclough what the experience taught her about working for pharmaceutical and biotech companies

When a brand owner believes that its valuable trade mark rights have been infringed by a third party, it can be faced with a difficult decision over the appropriate forum for enforcing its proprietary rights. The decision can be more difficult if the injury that resulted from the infringement occurred outside of the country in which the trade mark owner is pursuing enforcement action.

The Singapore Patents Act defines a patentable invention as one that is novel, inventive and capable of industrial application. Like most jurisdictions in the world, Singapore adopts an absolute novelty requirement. For an invention to be novel in Singapore, it must not form part of the state of the art. The Act defines the state of the art as follows:

Bart van Wezenbeek of Vereenigde considers the progression of patentability of chemical compounds leading to patent protection for naturally occurring substances

The market for foods for specific health uses in Japan is large and growing. Hiroshi Sorimachi of Kyowa Patent and Law Office explains how to obtain patent protection for functional foods

Originator pharmaceutical companies are facing growing pressures from generic rivals in Japan. But, as Makoto Ono of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune explains, they are gaining support from the JPO and the country’s courts

Richard Willoughby of Rouse considers whether patent protection remains important for orphan drugs