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The Dutch company Formula One Licensing BV filed an application for a trade mark – Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix. The examiner of the Patent Office refused registration in classes 09, 16, 18, 25, 28, 38, 41 arguing that the claimed designation was confusingly similar to a number of trade marks (no 217978 and others) which include word elements Grand Prix for homogeneous goods and services in classes 09, 16, 18, 25, 28, 38, 41 and with a combined trade mark no 361073 which includes word elements Grand Prix de Russie in classes 09, 16, 18, 25, 28, 38, 41 for homogeneous goods and services in classes 16, 25, 28, 41. The examiner also argued that since the claimed designation included the word Russian it could mislead the consumers with regard to the provider of the goods and services because the applicant was a foreign person.

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.

The revised Korean Trade Mark Act (KTA) will come into effect from July 27 2010. The main contents of the revision are:

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:

A new law regulating the marketing of textile, leather and footwear goods – known as the Reguzzoni-Versace Law – was published in the Official Gazette on April 21 2010 and will enter into force on October 1 2010. This new provision creates a system of obligatory labelling for goods in the textile, leather and footwear sectors.

The Amendment to the Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Act will come into effect on July 1 2010. This Amendment aims to expand the scope of criminal punishment for trade secret infringement cases.

Recently the Delhi High court decided on an important question of law concerning the maintainability of a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India against an order of the Controller of Patents either allowing or rejecting a pre-grant opposition under Section 25(1) of the Patents Act 1970. The case is UCB FARCHIM SA v Cipla Ltd and Ors and Colorcon Inc v Ideal Cures Pvt Ltd and Ors and Yeda Research and Development Co Ltd v Natco Pharma Ltd and Ors and Eli Lilly and Co v Ajanta Pharma Ltd Ors WP (C) Nos 8393, 12006 and 13295 of 2009 and WP (C) No 332 of 2010 along with WP (C) Nos 8388 and 8392 of 2009. The Court combined the six writ petitions presented before it for determination to clarify the position of law as regards the remedy available to a person against the unfavourable orders of the Controller in pre-grant proceedings.

The April 2010 edition of the Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office has been released and applies from April 1 2010. The Guidelines constitute the EPO counterpart to the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

In the field of pharmaceuticals, a supplementary protection certificate (SPC) can be obtained for a maximum of five years after the duration of the patent. Originally, this SPC was granted to compensate for the investment pharmaceutical companies needed to make to obtain a marketing approval (MA) to put a new drug on the market.

Thomas J Treutler of Tilleke & Gibbins considers the possibilities for franchises in Vietnam