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When handling applications before the European Patent Office (EPO), we frequently encounter enquiries regarding the speed of examination. While the EPO has recently increased the speed at which it conducts examination, individual national patent applications are still the fastest method of progressing an application to grant.

On January 17 2018, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines issued its Guidelines on the Examination of Information Communications Technology (ICT) and Computer Implemented Inventions (CII), as a result of increasing demand for patent protection in these fields. In the past, patent examiners applied the general guidelines for patent examination, but difficulties encountered by patent examiners resulting in inconsistent decisions on patent grants and refusals necessitated the issuance of separate examination guidelines. These guidelines do not have the force of law but are meant to assist the examiners in determining whether the claimed inventions comply with the substantive law (Sections 21 and 22 of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (IP Code) and its Implementing Rules 201 and 202).

Filing a utility model application for an invention can be a quick way to obtain patent rights in Taiwan. A utility model application will mature into a registration with a duration of 10 years from the filing date as soon as the formality requirements are fulfilled. However, as a utility model application filed in Taiwan is not subject to a substantive examination looking at novelty and inventive step, before a utility model patent holder can enforce his right against an infringer, he needs to ask Taiwan's IP Office to produce a technical evaluation report in which prior art references are cited (if any) and the relevance of these to each claim is specified. The scope of the claims of a utility model patent might need to be restricted in light of the references cited by the IP Office.

People have generally thought of China as a first to file country in the area of trade mark protection. Filing and registration of trade marks are emphasised in the jurisdiction. However, new trade mark law that came into force on May 1 2014 shed more light on trade mark use. Trade mark use, if not fundamental in China, is becoming more and more important and may be even more significant in the future.

In its recent decision X ZR 55/16 – Trommeleinheit, the German Federal Court of Justice (FCJ) further clarifies previous case law on the exhaustion of patent rights.

In Nigeria there were two important trade mark judgments, both of which went in favour of foreign companies. In the case of Piaggio & CSPA v Autobahn Techniques and the Registrar of Trademarks (Federal High Court, Lagos, November 30 2017) the court made it clear that a Nigerian distributor cannot take the trade mark of its foreign principal. The judge sent this warning to Nigerian distributors: extensive promotion does not amount to 'acquisition of proprietorship and goodwill.'

Identification and quantification of HER2/neu as a proto-oncogene has led to humoral or antibody-based passive immunotherapy, including the use of trastuzumab (Herceptin®).

A non-use court action is routine for the IP court. Every year several hundred cases are considered and granted. Sometimes, however, a cancellation action stumbles at unexpected obstacles.

In recent decisions, two different single judges of the Delhi High Court, while adjudicating trade mark infringement and/or passing off cases involving online transactions, interpreted Section 20(c) of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908. The judges asserted that every suit should be brought in a court in whose jurisdiction the cause of action, wholly or in part, arises. They also reiterated that the court will have territorial jurisdiction to decide on such cases only where the plaintiff is able to establish that the defendant has entered into a commercial transaction using a website with a user within the forum state. This must have resulted in injury or harm to the plaintiff within the forum state.

Clients are struggling to ban infringing goods from the internet, we experience difficulties making payments because our bank is under a Distributed Denial of Service attack and we frequently receive phishing mails and spam. Despite this, Pirate Bay and illegal streaming can be tempting (even to IP professionals).