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While the $4.5 billion Nortel patent sale is a loss for Google, legal commentators said it showed just how much fear the search-engine giant has instilled in its competitors

Michael Nolan, a partner at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy in Washington DC, has been named general counsel of the Intellectual Property Owner’s Association (IPO).

What impact will the first-to-file system have on the Office?

The L’Oréal v eBay judgment helps brand owners who want to stop the sale of infringing goods online, but leaves considerable discretion to national courts in Europe, according to trade mark practitioners

When Israel drug makers Unipharm and Trima started manufacturing generic versions of SmithKline Beecham's drug Avandia, SKB filed for an injunction and damages. Unipharm and Trima claimed that the patent (IL 106904) was invalid in light of a European patent previously filed by SKB that was published before the priority date.

Romanian courts have already set a trend by issuing several definitive decisions that have led to supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) being granted for products that, in light of the latest opinions delivered by the Advocate General Mengozzi, should not qualify for such protection in Romania. However, even if a battle is lost for generic companies, the war is far from being over.

The District Administrative Court in Warsaw in its judgment on March 28 2011 dismissed a complaint against the decision of the Polish Patent Office refusing to grant protection rights for the trade mark Villa Nova.

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has issued for comments proposed revised rules for inter partes cases as part of its wish to provide speedy, high-quality and effective legal remedies and be the forum of choice to resolve IP disputes. These cases include the following: oppositions to applications for the registration of marks; petitions to cancel the registrations of marks, patents, utility model registrations, industrial design registrations, or any claim or parts of a claim, and registrations of topography or layout design of integrated circuits; and petitions for compulsory licensing. The salient points of the proposed rules are:

A decision of the first instance Court of Commerce of the Canton of Zurich had held that the Swiss part of European patent 1 175 904 claiming a dosage regime in the form of a Swiss-type claim ("Use of alendronate in the manufacture of a medicament for treating osteoporosis in a human in need of such treatment, where said medicament is orally administered to said human as a unit dosage comprising about 70mg of the alendronate compound, on an alendronic acid active weight basis, according to a continuous schedule having a once-weekly dosing interval") was not valid as being directed to non-patentable subject matter in view of Article 2 (2a) of the Swiss Patent Act and Article 52(4) EPC 1973.

In a recent case, the Court of Appeals in Thessaloniki considered whether there is a likelihood of confusion between an earlier CTM that covers goods of classes 11 (illuminating devices), 20 (children's furniture) and 25 (clothing) (figure 1) and a subsequent mark used to designate prams, bicycles for children and related goods (falling within class 12) (figure 2).