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Following consultation in November/December 2008 (see Managing IP, December 2008), on April 22 2009 the Supreme People's Court of China issued the Interpretation of Certain Questions on Application of Law Relating to the Protection of Well-Known Marks in the Adjudication of Civil Disputes which came into force on May 1 2009. Though most of the original proposals in the consultation draft are adopted, there are certain changes.

The "Postkantoor" decision of the European Court of Justice (case C-363/99 "Postkantoor") found among other points that point 6 of Directive 89/104 prevents a trade mark registration authority from registering a mark for certain goods and services on condition that they do not possess a particular characteristic. OHIM has already refused to accept some disclaimers on the basis of that finding. But national trade mark offices struggle with the breadth of the Court's finding.

The Australian High Court has issued a landmark case on the idea and form of expression dichotomy under copyright law.

The Know-How Transfer Law N° 22,426 governs agreements related to the so-called know-how, or transfer, assignment or licence of trade marks by foreign-domiciled persons to Argentine-domiciled persons.

During 2007, the Dubai Court of First Instance was called on to confirm the validity of the trade mark Aqua, used in respect of metal drain covers and the cancellation of the trade mark Aqua M BBM used and registered in respect of identical goods. The court dismissed the action, a decision that was confirmed by both the Courts of Appeal (Number 631/2007) and Cassation (Number 95/2008).

Under Thai practice, an application for a trade mark with multiple meanings may be rejected if one of the possible meanings of the mark could be considered descriptive of the goods for which registration is sought. Contrary to this common practice, however, the following case provides an example of a trade mark application that was initially rejected by the registrar on grounds of descriptiveness, but was subsequently accepted for registration by the Board of Trade Marks.

FIFA has secured its first ruling against ambush marketers, earning a court judgment against Pretoria's Eastwoods Tavern. The popular sports bar is located close to the Loftus stadium, one of the venues that will host games during next year's Soccer World Cup tournament.

There are several ways to accelerate examination of a patent application in Korea, three of which foreign applicants may find interesting.

The patent prosecution highway (PPH) pilot programme between the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) was implemented on February 2 2009 to allow applicants to obtain corresponding patents in the United States and Singapore more quickly and efficiently. Under the PPH, when at least one claim in an application in either one of these countries has been found to be patentable, the applicant can apply for fast track examination of the corresponding claim(s) in the US and Singapore patent applications, respectively.

On January 17 2009, the regulations of Legislative Decree No 1072 regarding the "Pharmaceutical Test Data Protection and other undisclosed data of pharmaceutical products" were published in the Peruvian gazette, El Peruano.