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Keith Medansky of DLA Piper shares tips on best practices for managing international trade mark portfolios including filing strategies

"This is an opportunity to make sure that we build upon the very real progress that has been made in providing a higher quality service to users," the EUIPO executive director tells Managing IP

India has no plans to join the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, as the country’s top IP official explained in a recent interview

Icann's latest draft Applicant Guidebook for new generic top-level domains, released April 15, has enhanced some trade mark protections. The draft Guidebook now says that all new gTLD registries must provide both a Trade mark Claims and a Sunrise service. Previously, they could provide either one or the other. In a second important change, the latest draft has made it easier for trade marks to be included in the Clearinghouse. The previous draft said that only marks that have undergone "substantive review" would be recognised during Sunrise services, which might have excluded trade marks registered in offices that only examine on absolute grounds, including OHIM. However, trade mark owners will have to show use. The draft also includes a 'loser pays' model to the uniform rapid suspension process, but in only cases involving 26 or more domains.

A battle is brewing in Luxembourg over how the General Court, which handles Community trade mark and design cases, should address concerns over its workload

A three-person UDRP panel in The New York Times Company v Name Administration made a potentially game-changing decision, by endorsing the doctrine of laches defence. The domain dealbook.com was registered prior to the trade mark, which meant the complaint was denied. But the panel explicitly made an argument for a laches defence anyway. It is "a valid defense in any domain dispute where the facts so warrant," wrote the National Arbitration Forum panel.

Wim Van der Eijk has been appointed vice president of the European Patent Office, in charge of the Boards of Appeal. Van der Eijk, 54, will take over from Peter Messerli, who is retiring at the end of November after 15 years in the role. The appointment is for five years. Before joining the EPO, he was chief legal officer of the Netherlands Patent Office and manager of its patent division. He also worked in the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands, as well as serving as an honorary judge at the District Court of The Hague, In April this year, Messerli received Managing IP magazine's Outstanding Achievement Award.

Covington & Burling has added four life sciences partners to its London office, from Morrison & Foerster. Paul Claydon, Natalie Diep, James Gubbins and James Halstead have all joined a team that is spread across London and Brussels in Europe. They advise life sciences, technology and renewable energy industry clients on mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and follow-on financings, and private equity and venture capital transactions. The team has worked together for many years, and was ranked first for number of UK pharmaceutical M&A deals for four years from 2007 to 2010. Notable transactions including advising Acambis on the £276 million recommended takeover offer from Sanofi-Aventis, IS Pharma on the recommended merger with Sinclair Pharma and Liberum Capital on the AIM IPO by HaloSource.

The pending launch of the new gTLD programme will change the way businesses protect their online identities

The Australian government has launched a review of the country’s innovation patent system, 10 years after it came into effect