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Last year Syria amended the provisions of its trade mark law that deal with the protection of famous marks.

On 18 December 2009, the New Zealand High Court and Court of Appeal both issued trade mark decisions, one considering a procedural issue and the other trade mark infringement.

On the basis of the UPOV treaty and the various national and European regulations on breeders' rights, the protection for a specific plant variety also extends to varieties that are "essentially derived" from that variety.

On December 15 2009, the IP High Court of Japan rendered a decision dismissing a request for a preliminary injunction by an applicant wanting to prevent the respondent from initiating legal action in a foreign country.

The State of Israel, represented by Dr Shlomo Cohen & Co, Law Offices, has filed a NIS500 million ($132 million) lawsuit in the Tel Aviv District Court against Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Ltd and entrepreneur Robert Taub. Omrix, bought by Johnson & Johnson in 2008 for $438 million, has commercialised a number of related inventions concerning medical adhesives for treating haemophiliacs and other applications. In the lawsuit the state claims that the company stole its intellectual property.

The government's anti-piracy programme stepped up a notch at the end of 2009 with three important events taking place in December.

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 National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP) has issued an official Notice in favour of General Electric, who lodged an opposition against Vietnamese trade mark application GE mancy & Device for real estate services in Class 36 under the name of Phong Thuy One-Member Co. In the Notice, the examiner concluded that the representation of GE mancy & Device would certainly result in association between the mark and General Electric in the minds of the public. The application was refused in accordance with Article 74 of the Vietnamese Law on Intellectual Property.

On December 13 2009, the CNNIC, the regulator of the .cn TLD, issued an urgent notice. The gist of the notice was that beginning at 9am on December 14 2009, no individuals are qualified to register a domain name. A domain name applicant is also required to submit a copy of the business licence (or a business bar code certificate) to the domain name registrar.

Austrian rules on remuneration for inventions made by employees are in several aspects quite different to those in Germany. Two of them are highlighted here.