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The Supreme Court of India has directed the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) to hear the Novartis matter on November 3 2008. During the recent patent row involving the cancer drug Glivec (imatinib mesylate) of Swiss pharma major Novartis, the constitution of IPAB came under scrutiny due to its reviews of the Indian patent office's decisions. The Supreme Court ordered the appointment of Dr PC Chakraborty, deputy controller general of patents and designs in the Kolkata office as the new technical member for hearing the Gleevec appeal. This was in response to the concerns expressed by Novartis over the existing member S Chandrasekharan, since he was the patent controller who rejected Novertis' beta patent. The IPAB is the board of appeals for intellectual property matters and consists of a chairman, one judicial member and one technical member.

The Chilean Congress recently approved the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and its associated regulations. Approval of this Treaty is in harmony with the commitments assumed by the state of Chile upon its subscription to the 2002 Association Agreement with the European Union and the 2003 Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

Canadian representatives are involved in what have been termed plurilateral trade agreement talks aimed at the improved enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Under the Korean Trademark Act, the registration of a trade mark can be cancelled if it is not used within three years of the date on which an interested party files a cancellation action based on non-use or if it is used in an improper manner by the trade mark owner or its licensee. Articles 73(1)(ii) (improper use by a registrant) and 73(1)(viii) (improper use by a licensee) can be a good weapon for famous mark owners to attack third parties that own a trade mark whose registered form may not be considered similar to the famous mark, but the form actually used is very similar.

The patent attorney profession is still in its infancy in the Philippines. This may be gleaned from the relatively low number of patent applications being filed in the name of local inventors or companies. From information given by the Bureau of Patents (BOP), the number of patent applications, which include inventions, utility models and designs, filed in the Philippines increased by more than 100% compared to 2002. This is, however, due to the increase in patent applications received from foreigners entering the Philippines thru the PCT. The Philippine joined the PCT on August 21 2001, and since 2002, PCT applications received by the BOP have increased steadily. Applications, however, from local companies have remained more or less constant at an average of about 1,200 applications a year. The ratio of foreign patent applications to local has averaged at 70:30, as shown in the table below.

In a recent decision the Malaysian High Court in the case of Abercombie & Fitch Co & Anor V Fashion Factory Outlet KL Sdn Bhd & Ors [2008] 4 MLJ 127, held that sale of goods bearing a trade mark over the internet or using a website is use of the trade mark.

The success of the high-tech sector in Israel has been driven by many factors, including the vast pool of talented scientists, engineers and researchers, a dynamic venture capital market, a genuine entrepreneurial spirit and advanced academic institutions and their increasingly fruitful collaboration with industry. In addition, the role of the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) of the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour and its many programmes, and the effect of the Law for the Encouragement of Industrial Research and Development, 1984, as amended (the Law), the implementation of which the OCS oversees, have also played an important role.

In order to avoid the hijack of its own vintage variety of rice, basmati, by private companies, India is attempting to obtain geographical indication (GI) protection for basmati. GI status would identify it globally as unique for qualities exclusively attributed to the place of its origin and confer legal protection against unauthorized use of the name by other rice producers.

Dianne Daley and Nicole Foga of Foga Daley describe a decade of progress for collective management organisations

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