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The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that a $398 million deal between a patent owner and generic pharmaceutical companies does not violate competition law, in the latest controversial case over reverse payments to be decided in the US courts.

On the last session day, October 8 2008, the Philippine Senate ratified the controversial Agreement Between the Republic of the Philippines and Japan for Economic Partnership (JPEPA). This agreement was signed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and then by Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on September 9 2006, and required the ratification of the parliaments of both countries. Japan quickly approved it in December 2006. Having been objected to by different sectors, it took longer to obtain the agreement of the Senate. The JPEPA is the first bilateral economic pact for the Philippines, and was designed after the Japan-Singapore Economic Partnership Agreement (JSEPA), the first bilateral economic partnership agreement entered into by Japan and considered as a means to promote the economic relations of Japan with other ASEAN countries.

A UK court has awarded Canadian generic company Apotex £17.5 million ($28.3 million) in damages after an interim injunction preventing it from making a generic version of French pharmaceutical company Servier's drug Coversyl was overturned.

You have an invention you want to patent. To qualify in most countries, your invention must meet the standard for so-called absolute novelty. This means it cannot have been sold or disclosed in prior patents, publications, trade brochures, advertisements, etc. Such items constitute what is referred to as the prior art.

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has recently published revised examination guidelines for patent applications relating to medical inventions. The revisions are to take into account amendments to patent law made by the provisions of the Patents Act 2004, which came in force on December 13 2007 following the implementation of the European Patent Convention 2000. As always, the guidelines are a comprehensive explanation of the practice of the IPO and all practitioners in this field are advised to consult them.

Thailand officially became a member of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (Paris Convention) on August 2 2008, making it the 173rd state to be party to the Convention. The accession to the Paris Convention will have two primary advantages.

Turkey's policy is that geographical indications (GIs) should be protected not only for wines and spirits but also for other products. The same argument has been made by countries such as Switzerland, Hungary and Bulgaria in TRIPs Council meetings though a majority of countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, Argentina and Chile were against it.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced an amendment to its examination guidelines broadening the scope of patentable inventions using materials from human bodies (including materials from deceased persons), effective as of July 1 2008. Prior to this amendment, inventions using materials from human bodies were generally not patentable in Korea. Such inventions were believed to harm human dignity and be ethically unacceptable. Even inventions using materials from deceased persons were generally not allowed. The only exception to this prohibition under the previous examination guidelines was using parts of the human body that were obtained naturally and not artificially (e.g. surgery). For example, inventions using blood or placenta naturally discharged from the human body were allowed while use of cells removed through surgical procedures was not.