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The government of Canada continues to modernise Canada's IP framework to comply with a number of international IP treaties, including the Patent Law Treaty (PLT). Previous amendments to the Canadian Patent Act have been made, but are not yet in force, to comply with the requirements of the PLT. The government of Canada is now in the process of amending the accompanying Canadian Patent Rules, which will guide how the Act is applied. A public consultation on proposed amendments to the Rules runs from August 1 to September 8 2017. In view of the necessary steps in the regulatory approval process in Canada, the amended Rules could be in force by early 2019.

Cambodia and Thailand have made modifications to the rules and regulations related to their trade mark application filing procedures as part of the ongoing south-east Asia region-wide trend towards electronic IP processes.

April 21 2017, was a milestone in the settlement of IP infringement cases relating to .vn domain names in Vietnam. This was the day the domain name bmw.com.vn was withdrawn by the national domain name management agency, the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC), taking control of the domain away from the registrant by 'flicking a switch' at the registry. It marked the first time under recently passed legislation that VNNIC had withdrawn a domain name at the request of the IP infringement settlement agency, the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).

The landscape for IP litigation has improved considerably in Canada. Kevin P Siu and Steven B Garland of Smart & Biggar outline the benefits for global rights owners

Trade mark owners need to weigh up various factors when deciding where to bring an infringement action. Sahira Khwaja, Alastair Shaw, Leopold von Gerlach, Ewa Kacperek, Marie-Aimée de Dampierre and Alexis Valot compare procedures and practices in France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom

In the case of Hewlett-Packard v Digital Revolution (Court of Appeal, The Hague, May 23 2017) a fair number of claims of the patent (EP 2170617) were held to be invalid on the basis of the interpretation of the means-plus-function claims. The appeal court endorsed the interpretation that was used by the EPO Board of Appeal in case T 0096/12.

Last year (2016), the criminal system in force in Mexico until then was changed. A new accusatory oral system was implemented, which represents changes in both the system and the criteria.

Six years after its second edition of the WIPO Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions, WIPO unveiled the third edition of its overview of UDRP jurisprudence. Justin Chay and Brian Beckham highlight several key updates

Tim Moss took over as chief executive of the UK IPO on May 1. Three months on, he talked to James Nurton about his ambitions, Brexit and being an “honest broker”

Online shopping is very popular in China due to the great variety of products and cheap or even free product delivery. As a tactical choice, some IP owners begin to purchase infringing products online and have the process of product delivery notarised. In this way, the plaintiffs attempt to bring lawsuits in a venue having jurisdiction over the place where the delivered product is received or the place where they reside, so as to gain home court advantage or win a favourable edge over the defendants. However, this could cause unfairness and inconvenience to the defendants.