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With the revisions to the Patent Act introduced this year, there will soon be more options to challenge patents in Korea. Leon Kim and Hyun-Sil Lee explain

Cameroon has made it clear that it takes the infringement of IP rights very seriously.

For years, the courts have been preoccupied with infringement proceedings that are conducted by standard essential patents (SEP) holders, who previously submitted declarations as part of the standardization process, namely assurances that prospective licensees will be granted licences under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) conditions. The dispute is particularly about the extent to which an SEP can be enforced in court by dominant companies without them, in doing so, breaching the antitrust abuse law under Article 102 TFEU.

Companies that decide to produce or sell products in mainland China without first having registered their trade marks do so at their own peril.

This summer, the Court of Justice of the EU issued a ruling that dealt with the application of article 14 of the EU IP Enforcement Directive. According to this article, EU member states must ensure that in court cases, the reasonable and proportionate legal costs and other expenses incurred by the successful party shall, as a general rule, be borne by the losing party. While one could gather from this that the sky's the limit as far as costs compensations in IP cases go, the Court ruling teaches us there may in fact be limits.

A very recent court judgment issued by the Beijing IP Court imposed contributory liability on trade fair organisers for patent infringement. Though the reasoning is quite unclear, this decision gives some worthy attention to IP enforcement at Chinese trade fairs.

Much water has flowed under the bridge since 1986, yet the law regulating the patentability of software remains the same. A close look at the new guidelines for examination in the Spanish Patent and Trade Mark Office (OEPM) shows that those aspects concerning patentability remain the same as in the original Guidelines … so we may give it a big yes, nothing has changed.

Tax avoidance involving the import of undeclared trade marked items has led the Mexican Customs authorities to change the regulations governing the information that must be submitted.

The UK has voted to leave the European Union, but how does this affect patents? Patents can be obtained in the UK via two separate means, either directly from the UK intellectual Office (UKIPO) which is governed by the UK Patents Act, or from the European Patent Office. Both organisations are unaffected by the UK leaving the EU. The European Patent Office is not an EU organisation, and already has members who are not member states of the EU such as Turkey, Norway and Switzerland.

The Dutch interim injunction court is only competent in cases with urgent interest. A recent case, Ruby Decor v Basic Holdings, raised the question whether or not such urgent interest was indeed present.