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Ard Ellens and Jan Kevelam of Nederlandsch Octrooibureau explain how new rules at the European Patent Office may trap the unwary patent applicant

Standard setting organisations aim to balance the needs of patent holders and consumers. Cyrille Amar and Jean-Marc Puech of Lavoix Avocats explain the effect of the FRAND undertaking in practice

Russian judges are taking a more relaxed approach to parallel traded products. Ekaterina Tilling of Goltsblat BLP explains what trade mark owners can do to limit grey market goods

Litigating patents that are essential to technical standards requires a careful consideration of antitrust rules. Sabine Agé and Amandine Métier of Véron & Associés, Klaus Haft and Tobias Hahn of Reimann Osterrieth Köhler Haft, Mark van Gardingen of Brinkhof and Ari Laakkonen of Powell Gilbert explain the rules in their own jurisdictions

A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam - who received the world's first recorded patent in 1449

The dilution doctrine, which aims to prohibit the blurring or tarnishing of the image of well-known trade marks through unauthorised appropriation by others, was incorporated in May 2003 into the Taiwan Trademark Act. Since then, a person shall be held liable for trade mark infringement if they knowingly use, without consent, a trade mark identical with or similar to another's well-known registered trade mark or the word(s) in that trade mark as their company name, trade name, domain name or as an indication of origin of goods or services, thereby diluting the well-known trade mark.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) recently approved the binding corporate rules (BCRs) of the Accenture and Atmel groups of companies, giving them freedom to transfer personal data from the UK to other entities within their own corporate groups which operate outside the EEA.

As an EU member state, Poland, is bound by Council Regulation (EC) 1383 of July 22 2003 which came into effect on July 1 2004, determining the actions of Customs authorities against goods deemed to be infringing IP rights, as well as the measures to be taken by Customs authorities in respect of such goods. In addition, the territory of Poland as a member state of the EU is subject to an additional regulation, namely Council Regulation (EC)189/2004 of October 21 2004, which came into effect with retroactive date on July 1 2004 and sets executive regulations to the Council Regulation (EC) 1383/2003.

In a recently published appeal before the Amsterdam Court of Appeal (Netherlands Patent Office Journal 2009, Number 20, pages 75-78), the court considered the implications of an exclusive distribution agreement on know-how protection.

Under Article 67(2) of the Japanese Patent Act, if there is a period during which a patented invention is unable to be worked because certain governmental approvals, which are prescribed by the Act to ensure safety or any other disposition designated by Cabinet Order, are necessary for the operation of the patented invention, the duration of the patent may be extended, upon the filing of an application.