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On May 20 2019, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) started operating as an international searching authority (ISA) and international preliminary examining authority (IPEA). It now conducts search and preliminary examination of international applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) of the World Intellectual Property Organization. To encourage Filipino inventors, as well as higher educational institutions that are members of the Innovation and Technology Support Offices Network (ITSO), the IPOPHL has launched a programme waiving search and preliminary examination fees for the first 100 applicants which choose IPOPHL as the ISA or IPEA. Under this PCT Filing Assistance Program, foreign applicants from states included in WIPO's list of eligible nationals or residents may also avail of a 90% reduction of certain PCT fees. This programme is in effect until December 31 2019, or after 100 requests for ISRs have been filed, whichever comes first. The IPOPHL's Schedule of Fees as ISA can be found in the PCT Applicant's Guide – International Phase on the WIPO website. The Applicant's Guide also provides a few guidelines in relation to the IPOPHL's function as ISA, such as the conditions for refund and amount of refund of the search fee, whether the IPOPHL requires that nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence listings be furnished in electronic form, and which subject matter will not be searched, among others.

The enforcement of trademark infringement crimes is not ex-officio in Turkey. In other words, trademark owners have to file a criminal complaint to start criminal IP proceedings for each and every case. Thus trademark owners have to take into consideration beforehand, all possible risks that might occur in a worst case scenario, especially counterclaims which could include damages figures put forward by infringers if no fake products can be seized during an actual raid or even worse, if original products are seized during a raid instead of fakes.

On June 30, after nine years of negotiations, Vietnam and the European Union officially signed the landmark EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), an ambitious and progressive agreement that includes important provisions on intellectual property.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), once again won the elections with a clear majority and formed the government in May 2019. This is the party's second term in a row. Interestingly, during the election campaign, one of the adverts released entitled "Transforming India's IP Landscape" counted, among others, the following achievements:

On June 4 2019, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) issued a cease and desist order and surcharge payment order to KOA ISEI Co LTD (KOA ISEI) under the provisions of the Antimonopoly Act.

The legal provisions regarding the pricing of pharmaceutical products have been amended several times during the last decade in an effort to address the issue of very high pharma expenditure and its impact on hospitals and the social security system and to create a stable and predictable reference pricing framework.

On April 26 2019, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) issued special rules on its technical patent investigators (provisions), effective as of May 1 2019, which formally stipulate the procedures, duties and liabilities related to the participation of technical investigators in the trial of IP cases. The issuing of the provisions is also an acknowledgement of the successful trial run of the technical investigator system in the last four years.

Solomon Linda from Zululand composed an ethnic song called Mbube (meaning lion). Gallo Records released a record of it. Gallo took assignment of the worldwide copyright for a pittance. In the 1950s the record made its way to the USA. A famous folk-singer reworked the song and made it into a hit song called Wimoweh. A decade later Mbube was further reworked into mega hit-song called The Lion Sleeps Tonight ("LST"). In the 1990s LST was incorporated into Walt Disney's stage show and movie The Lion King. In particular, Mbube's incarnation as LST, made countless millions of US dollars. Solomon Linda and, after his death in 1962, his heirs, saw none of this money and existed in penury.

Both parties are owners of registered EU trademarks consisting of the letters MK in different designs, with the additional wording "illumination". The plaintiff, an Austrian company has a business concerned with decorative illuminations in Austria and abroad. The defendant, a Czech company, is selling, lending, delivering and installing decorative illuminations and illuminated commercial signs. The defendant's EU registration is younger than that of the plaintiff.