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In 2009, Vietnam will make some key amendments to its IP Law. Some of the amendments are aimed at correcting inconsistencies in the law, while others are designed to bring articles into compliance with Vietnam's international commitments on IP protection. Highlights include:

Brands often consist of multiple word elements in which one component is a uniquely coined term (as it relates to the goods or services sold under the mark) and the other component is a common descriptive term. When a trade mark dispute arises between two parties, one issue that US trade mark tribunals must deal with in determining whether or not there is a likelihood of confusion between two marks is the effect that any descriptive components of the marks may have.

There is a need for users of social network websites to realise the importance of protecting their uploaded contents. The invasion of their privacy can stem from the social network providers attempting to withdraw users' rights to utilize their uploaded contents or from unauthorised persons exploiting the contents. In the United Arab Emirates, there are laws to protect the right to privacy accorded to individuals.

In the first ever case of its kind, on February11 the Patents Court ordered the payment of £1.5 million ($2.1 million) in "employee compensation" to two former employees of GE Healthcare who were inventors of chemical complexes which form the basis of GE Healthcare's blockbuster heart imaging product Myoview. The claim was made under little-used provisions of the Patents Act 1977 which entitle employees named as inventors on patents to seek compensation if the patent has been of "outstanding benefit" to the employer. In this case the Court found that this hurdle had been overcome, assessed the monetary value of the patents to GE Healthcare at £50 million and awarded the inventors a 3% share of that benefit.

Is the hoarding of a competitor's product containers an act of unfair competition under the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines? This is the issue addressed in the case of Coca Cola Bottlers Phils Inc vs Quintin Gomez, et al in case no GR 154491 involving two rival multinational soft drink giants; petitioner Coca-Cola Bottlers, Phils, Inc accused Pepsi Cola Products Phils, represented by the respondents, of hoarding empty Coke bottles in bad faith to discredit its business and to sabotage its operation in the Bicol region.

On March 6, the Supreme Court of The Netherlands (Hoge Raad) issued two decisions in patent cases.

In a recent decision rendered following an infringement action brought on behalf of the Greek originator pharmaceutical company Uni-Pharma Kleon Tsetis Pharmaceutical Laboratories SA against a Greek generic company, the Full Bench Court of Athens held for the first time that obtaining a marketing authorisation (MA) for a generic pharmaceutical product that infringes patent rights does not legitimise the circulation of the generic product in the market.

In a recent decision (T 1790/06-3.3.08), a Technical Board of Appeal (TBA) of the European Patent Office (EPO) has revoked a patent that was thought to be of fundamental importance in the highly competitive field of RNA interference (RNAi).

Amendments to the following IP laws were published in the Official Gazette number 30/2009 and entered into force on March 17 2009:

The Canadian Patent Office is currently undertaking an extensive review of the Patent Rules. Among changes proposed is an amendment related to section 6, which currently states that for the purpose of prosecuting or maintaining an application, the Commissioner shall only have regard to communications received from the authorised correspondent which, when appointed, is the patent agent. This has been found to be problematic in circumstances where the Office has received clear instructions from an agent, but could not give consideration to the instructions since the agent was not appointed as the authorised correspondent.