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Mark Schonfeld explains how companies can use trade mark law to thwart parallel traders

A full panel of the Federal Circuit has agreed to re-hear a case regarding the US doctrine of inequitable conduct, answering Chief Judge Paul Michel's plea to IP practitioners last year

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

According to the Vietnam National Internet Centre (VNNIC), there have been hundreds of complaints requesting the withdrawal of registered .vn domain names. The most popular ground for such complaints is that the registered domain names are identical to complainants' registered trademarks or trade names. Many complainants are owners of famous trade marks. As a result of this situation, on March 17 2010, the VNNIC issued Guidelines on Handling of Disputed ".vn" Domain Names.

Under the Singapore Patents Act, one prosecution option that an applicant may select is to request examination based on a prescribed foreign search report, including the International Search Report (ISR) in the case of a national phase application (PCT).

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.