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In an effort to reduce pharmaceutical expenditure, the Greek government has recently introduced a new pricing policy for pharmaceutical products. The new provisions on pricing of pharmaceuticals were introduced by market decree 2 of March 31 2010.

There are large differences between jurisdictions as to how and to what extent the prosecution history can be used later on in infringement and revocation actions for construing the patent in suit.

While Vietnam’s IP laws have been modernised, there is still a lot of work to do in improving enforcement. Dang Thi Hong Thuy and Dang Thi Hong Nga of D&N International explain

Peter Ollier reports on the Australian government’s plans to introduce a hardline packaging regime for cigarettes, and how the tobacco industry plans to oppose it

With the vast advancement in information and computer technology, using information contained in web pages as evidence in patent invalidation proceedings is quite common nowadays. However, since information on the internet changes more frequently than information in conventional media, it is relatively difficult to preserve web page information or to use such information as legal evidence. Hence, archived web pages that are retrievable using the Wayback Machine, a service provided by the Internet Archive, a non-profit organisation, have become an important source of prior art data in patent invalidation proceedings.

In April this year, Syria issued a new law for the regulation of trade in human medicines. The principal focus of the new law is on the regulation of the trade in and use of substances for the making of medicines and pharmaceutical products through the licensing and control of warehouses. However, the law also contains some important new provisions dealing with counterfeit products.

On August 30 2004, the Polish Patent Office (PPO) registered a word-figurative trade mark Ravago (R-154724) in the name of Walter Breitengraser. A Polish company Resinex Sp z o o filed a request for the cancellation of the right of protection. It argued that Breitengraser, by applying for the registration, violated not only Resinex's personal and economic rights – arising from the rights to the name Ravago – but also good morals. In addition, Resinex claimed that the application for the trade mark in question was filed in bad faith because Breitengraser was a president of the company acting as an agent for Resinex.

Norway is part of the European Economic Area but not part of the EU, hence EU designs do not offer protection in the Norwegian territory. Up until now, the only possibility for protection of designs in Norway has been through national filings.

On March 23 2010, the president of the Philippines signed into law Republic Act No 10055 known as the Philippine Technology Transfer Act of 2009. Published on April 23 2010, this law takes effect after 15 days. It provides the framework and support system for the ownership, management, use and commercialisation of intellectual property generated from government funded researches. This law was the brainchild of Estrella Alabastro of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and was inspired by the Bayh-Dole Act of the USA. She stated in the DOST Digest: "For the longest time, we rely mostly on breakthroughs from the outside, while our local technologies generated through public funds remain untapped or archived in laboratories around the country. Hence, this is a significant break for us to roll this out to the market and be availed of by the public." Some of the salient points of this law are:

In the recent case Mundipharma v Sandoz (Court of The Hague, April 7 2010) the Dutch court of first instance decided that Mundipharma's patent (number EP 0 722 730) was valid and that Sandoz did infringe the claims as granted.