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I am starting a business and want to expand to only a few countries. The process for registering a trade mark in those countries looks simple. Should I do it myself?

Franchising offers big benefits to brand owners considering international expansion. Mark Abell explains how to get it right

Akihiro Ryuka and Stephen Hamon of Ryuka IP Law Firm explain how patent applicants can synchronise their applications to improve the validity of their patents while saving time and money

In many jurisdictions, non-conventional trade marks are in principle recognised as valid and viable trade mark types, but trade mark owners seeking to register such marks will often face special problems, with stricter registrability tests being applied than in the case of conventional trade marks. This is certainly also the situation in Switzerland under current practice. However, in a recently published decision, the Federal Supreme Court established for the first time in its practice the criteria for registrability of musical marks (sound marks consisting of a sequence of musical notes) and thereby significantly facilitated the registration of such marks compared to the previous practice of the Swiss Trade Mark Office and the Federal Administrative Court.

A comprehensive indication means an indication of goods including various goods and is divided into comprehensive indication in a narrow sense, as recognised on January 1 2007, and comprehensive indication in a broad sense, as recognised on September 16 2008. A comprehensive indication in a broad sense means an indication of goods which falls under multiple similarity codes within the same class, for example clothing, and comprehensive indication in a narrow sense means an indication of goods which falls under the same similarity code within the same class, for example footwear.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) will officially be opening a Singapore Office of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (WIPO Center) in January 2010. The WIPO Center is the first outside of Geneva and will be located at Maxwell Chambers in Singapore's International Dispute Resolution Center.

On December 7 2009, the Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the Regional Trial Court of Makati dated July 15 1998, finding Philippine Airlines (PAL), the country's national airline, guilty of infringing the patented shell designs of Sabine Koschinger, with award of nominal damages and attorney's fees of P70,000 (about $1,500). Koschinger was the owner of two industrial design patents (4271 and 4273) filed with the Intellectual Property Office (IPPhil) on May 31 1988 and issued on January 24 1989. She claimed that for its first class flight accommodations, PAL used table linen and placemats depicting her designs without her authority. From January to April 1988, PAL purchased its linens and placemats with Koschinger's shell design through the Philippine Trading International Corporation (PITC), but in May 1988 PAL stopped ordering from PITC and sourced it elsewhere.

Although grey goods, also known as parallel imports, are regulated under the Mexican Industrial Property Law (IPL), the IPL treats grey goods bearing trade marks very differently from those involving patents.

The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) has proposed an amendment to the law governing copyright collective management organisations (CMOs). The draft amendment is expected to be implemented in 2010.

Countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have embarked on their first regional cooperation in intellectual property, specifically in patents, by introducing ASEAN Patent Examination Cooperation (ASPEC). There are eight participating IP offices from: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Once a search and examination report is issued by any of these countries, the applicant may use the report to file an ASPEC request in another member state. The report from the first IP Office will be used as a reference. However, the second IP Office is not obliged to adopt any of the findings or conclusions made by the first IP Office. At the moment, there is no additional fee to file ASPEC Request.