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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.

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 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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Hideo Doi of the Japan Intellectual Property Association looks at the debate over compulsory licensing of green technology and outlines an alternative proposal

When a new business is adopting a mark that will serve as the source identifier for their goods or services, a common option chosen is the surname of one of the company's principals. Often, the thought is that using a particular person's surname as a brand name will help create a correlation in the minds of consumers between the products or services offered and the person offering them. However, there are certain limitations with respect to obtaining a trade mark registration for a mark that consists solely of a person's name that a company should bear in mind when choosing to adopt their personal name as a brand name.