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Olga Plyasunova of Zuykov and partners examines the situations in which Rospatent will refuse registration of a trademark due to falsity or the possibility of confusion, offering advice on how to overcome potential rejections

China forms the centrepiece of this issue's cover story.

Republic Act No. 10963 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN), revising the outdated National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 took effect on January 1 2018. Its objective is to "correct a number of deficiencies in the tax system by making it simpler, fairer and more efficient". A new section on fuel marking was introduced in the TRAIN to curb smuggling and misdeclaration of petroleum products which has resulted in revenue losses from excise and value added taxes estimated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Philippine pesos at 37.5 billion annually.

Discovery of evidence and actions for determination of evidence are separately regulated under the Civil Procedural Law. Discovery of evidence is a preliminary step taken before any action on merits and it only serves to discover and record the evidence that may be relevant to an ongoing or future action on merits.

An analysis of judicial decisions rendered by the Malaysian courts suggest that parallel imports are lawful to some extent.

Using a range of metrics, Eddie Obissi and David Grosby of McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff explore the relationship between the amount of damages awarded in a patent infringement lawsuit and the quality of the patent

The Sudanese Trademark Office has announced an important jurisdictional change – the Appeal Committee of the Trademark Office has been dissolved and, in future, appeals against decisions of the registrar will go to the courts. A registrar's decision might, for example, be a refusal based on issues surrounding non-distinctiveness, or a refusal based on prior rights (in formal opposition proceedings).

Law 4605/19, enacted last week, introduced important amendments to Greek patent law and more specifically to the provisions relating to licences.

On March 18 2019, China announced amendments to its laws on joint ventures and the Regulations on Administration of Technology Import and Export (TIER) with immediate effect. The changes took away some of the restrictions around cross-border technology transfers, delivering more freedom in contracts in future transactions. The announcement has attracted lots of attention from around the world as the rules are directly related to some of the claims in the US-China trade disputes. The changes may turn out to be beneficial to both Chinese and foreign companies in the long-run. We highlight the background and key changes below.

In response to the adoption of China's new foreign investment law, the China State Council promulgated decision no. 709, which revoked certain provisions of the Administration of Technology Import and Export Regulations (TIER), effective since March 18 2019. These changes address one of the biggest controversies in the US-China trade war and open up a window for free negotiation in cross-border technology transfers by lifting certain mandatory restrictions. The changes include deleting Article 24(3), Article 27 and Article 29 of the regulations.