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Akihito Nakamachi of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune summarises some of the most important IP judgments made by Japan’s courts in 2009 and explains the fair use debate

Due to the adoption of TRIPs, several changes were introduced to adapt the Argentine legislation to the Agreement's minimum standards (such as the term of patent protection and the availability of patent rights in all fields of technology, for example).

A new trend in US copyright cases could save litigants thousands of dollars in discovery costs. Simon Frankel, Shannon Nestor and John Freed explain how

Just before the 2010 New Year some of the big Russian banks received a notification from their colleague, the Eastern Express bank, to the effect that the words Christmas, New Year, Vacation can be used only after signing a licence agreement. Eastern Express registered the words as trade marks and decided to improve its business by collecting royalties from the other banks using those words. The marks were registered in relation to bank and insurance services, and also services connected with evaluation of real estate and works of art.

As reported in Managing IP, the Competition Council of the European Union has recently agreed on a set of conclusions on an enhanced patent system in Europe. The main features of the system include an EU patent to be granted under the provisions of the European Patent Convention, that is by the EPO, as well as a European and EU Patents Court (EEUPC).

From December 18 2009 the Patents Act, Section 3, third subsection 5, states that the exclusive right obtained by a patent does not include "trials, experiments and similar of a patented medicine that are required to obtain a marketing authorisation for a medicine in a state that is a contracting party to the agreement of 15 April 1994 on the establishment of the World Trade Organisation".

Last November the European Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution to introduce the compulsory labelling of the mark "Made In" to indicate the origin of goods imported into the European Union.

During patent opposition proceedings before the German Patent and Trade Mark Office or an appellate court the opponent may sometimes wish to be substituted. In present legal practice a successful substitution of the opponent requires, inter alia, that the "sphere of interest" be transferred from the former opponent to the new opponent. However, correctly determining the scope of this sphere of interest may result in complex and lengthy legal proceedings.

In our previous columns we have emphasised the importance of exercising duty of candour in the prosecution and preparation of patent applications in Canada. In Ratiopharm Inc v Pfizer Limited, Mister Justice Hughes was very critical of "self-serving" statements in patent applications and found a patent invalid partly on the basis that the invention failed to live up to its claims of being "outstanding" and "markedly better than prior art compounds". In Lundbeck v Ratiopharm (2009), Madam Justice Mactavish revisited the duty of candour during prosecution and held a patent invalid despite the fact that the applicants had expressly drawn a particular piece of prior art to the examiner's attention and despite the fact that she considered the invention was neither anticipated by it nor obvious over it. Her rationale was that the applicants made the general statement that the prior art as a whole taught away from combining two compounds, whereas that was not true of the particular reference in question. This underscores the need to consider the impact of each known reference before making any sweeping generalisations in submissions to the examiner.

New examination standards for medicinal inventions have recently been implemented. Naoki Koizumi and Taku Yamada of TMI Associates explain how they will affect inventions relating to new dosages or administration