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The registered Community design offers quick, cheap and easy protection for a wide variety of designs in the EU. Carole De Roeck and Bénédicte Linden of Gevers & Partners provide a guide for applicants

The Consumer Protection Department of the UAE Ministry of Economy has recently announced plans to set up a consumer protection court in the Emirates. The Consumer Protection Department was established in 2006 and has since focused its efforts on reining in rising food prices. However, it is expected that this new measure will be of more general effect in protecting consumers. The remit of the proposed court has not been clarified, but it is assumed that the court will tackle other issues than overpricing – issues such as piracy and counterfeiting.

The Korean Patent Court has been increasingly using survey results as evidence to establish the distinctiveness of a trade mark. Distinctiveness is a requirement for registration and is often one of the main issues in trade mark infringement disputes. Until recently, the Korean Patent Court was reluctant to accept surveys as evidence to support distinctiveness, even though surveys may be the best method to show consumers' recognition of a trade mark. A main reason for the reluctance of the Patent Court was because the Court often found the surveys were designed to favour the plaintiff and could be interpreted many different ways.

Amanresorts Limited and Amanresorts International Pte Ltd (Amanresorts) are two companies under the umbrella of the Amanresorts Group. Amanresorts are the proprietors of various trade marks comprising the word Aman and/or the prefix Aman including Amanusa around the world (but their Amanusa mark in Singapore was not renewed at the relevant time). Amanresorts operates many exclusive and luxurious hotels and resorts around the world and Amanusa is one of Amanresorts' exclusive high-end resorts in Bali.

The Russian examiner fell victim to his love for France when he decided a trade mark application was a menace to the national interests of France. An applicant from the Ukraine filed a trade mark application (number 2006706477/50) claiming Evsinjak in Russian and Latin characters for alcoholic beverages. The examiner refused the application arguing that Evsinjak (Evsignak?) could be perceived by the consumers as a word of French origin and could even be understood as pointing to a geographical indication. The applicant appealed the decision of the examiner to the Chamber of Patent Disputes (CPD), which reversed the decision and pointed out that the word in Russian and Latin was not a word in either language including of any language using Latin characters. In fact, the word was coined by the applicant. He argued that the examiner refused registration because he believed France was one of the leaders in the production of alcoholic beverages including Cognac and Armagnac and consequently the claimed designation could be misleading with regard to the location of production of those beverages.

The Polish Supreme Court has recently issued an important decision concerning infringement of rights deriving from a trade mark registration by another trade mark registered later.

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) has issued updated guidelines for the examination of Swiss-type (second medical use) claims. Several topics are covered in the guidelines, including novelty requirements, allowable subject matter and sufficiency requirements. The guidelines are available online at IPONZ's website.

On July 15 1998, respondent Sabine Koschinger obtained a favourable decision from the Regional Trial Court of Makati City on her complaint for design infringement and damages against the national carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL). Koschinger claimed that PAL used her patented designs on linens and placemats in its commercial flights without her consent or authority. The decision was appealed by PAL to the Court of Appeals.

The Administrative Council of the EPO recently decided on changes to the EPC Implementing Regulations in Decision CA/D 3/09 that will come into force on April 1 2010. It is believed that these changes, inter alia, enable the speeding up of the examination procedure, as does the opinion accompanying the European search report, which was introduced a few years ago. At present, however, the intended acceleration is not achieved when the applicant delays the reply to the search report until the first communication is received shortly after the request for examination has been filed.

In the case of Elba SpA v Fiamma Sdn Bhd [2008] 3 MLJ, Elba, an Italian maker of cooking appliances, filed an originating motion for a declaration that it owned the Elba mark and that Malaysian company Fiamma's Elba registrations in class seven and 11, which had been registered for more than seven years, were entries made without sufficient cause and/or were entries wrongfully remaining on the register. Elba also asked for an order to expunge the marks from the register under sections 37 and 45 of the Trade Marks Act 1976.