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On March 19 2010, the Drug Administration of Vietnam (DAV) issued a notification to request that local Departments of Health in all cities and provinces of Vietnam step up the inspection and supervision of cosmetics to prevent counterfeits and illegally imported cosmetics from being circulated in the market. Accordingly, the local Departments of Health are coordinating with 127 local and central government agencies to inspect and supervise distribution and after-sale activities in the cosmetics industry. Truong Quoc Cuong, director of the DAV stated that, in this campaign, the authorities will monitor manufacturing and importing enterprises, cosmetics market places and border markets which are now known for the distribution of counterfeit and illegally imported products.

In Thailand, most IP owners prefer to proceed with their cases under criminal law due to the uncertainty of obtaining compensation, costs to litigate the full court case, delays of trials and other difficulties often associated with civil litigation. The advantage of prosecuting an IP case as a criminal action is that it can result in seizure of the infringing products. The infringer would cease or hold manufacturing and distributing their infringing products and would be prosecuted in a criminal lawsuit by the police and the public prosecutor.

Article 269 (1) of the Portuguese Industrial Property Code states that "forfeiture of a registration shall be declared if the trade mark has not been the object of serious use for a period of five consecutive years, unless there are just grounds for the non-use".

The Federal Supreme Court recently decided on whether the Patent Office may rightfully register a patent licence solely on the request of the licensee. This was the practice of the Office in view of the fact that the Patent Act provides no specific rules as to who may apply for the registration of a licence and whether it is sufficient for proof of title to file the licence contract, or whether an explicit consent of the patent owner is needed; the Act also does not provide any rules on how the Registrar should act if it is contentious whether a licence contract is (still) valid or not.

Secretive negotiations are underway for an international anti-counterfeiting deal. But what will ACTA mean for Europe? Marlous Stal-Hilders of Nederlandsch Octrooibureau explains

The ITC is an independent, quasi-judicial federal agency with broad investigative responsibilities on matters of trade. The ITC adjudicates, among other things, cases involving imports that allegedly infringe intellectual property rights. Most often, ITC investigations involve claims regarding IP rights including allegations of patent and/or trade mark infringement by imported goods. Other forms of unfair competition may include misappropriation of trade secrets, trade dress infringement, passing off, false advertising and violations of antitrust.

My company is considering selling a patent portfolio at an auction. Is this a good idea and what do I need to know about commercialising our technology this way?

According to official statistics, 370 design registrations were granted and renewed in Syria in 2008 compared to 468 in 2007 (the numbers for 2009 are not yet available). The number of applications for registration filed in 2008 was 331 compared to 385 in 2007.

Jef Vandekerckhove, vice-president and country manager Europe for Philips Intellectual Property and Standards headquartered in the Netherlands, shares his anti-counterfeiting tips

A recent court ruling suggests that IP owners may be able to protect their data with the so-called hot news doctrine. Steven Pokotilow, Ian DiBernardo and Richard Eskew explain the implications