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An item in the Mail & Guardian newspaper recently reported that a troop of baboons had discovered a new citrus variety in the Western Cape, South Africa. Alwyn van der Merwe, production director of ALG Estates near Citrusdal – 200km north of Cape Town – said that year after year the farm has been struck by a troop of baboons, which descended from the mountain. The troop always selected one tree among thousands in one of their orchards and devoured all the fruit before the season really got going. At closer inspection they discovered that the brix [sweetness grade] of this particular minneola, a soft citrus variety, was much higher than the rest of the orchard and that it started bearing fruit at least three weeks earlier than expected. Apparently, ALG Estates has set about developing this new variety.

The new Australian Designs Act of 2004 was introduced partially to overcome the syndrome of every design being valid, but no design being infringed by a copier who had made small differences. However, a recent decision under the new Act highlights the difficulty in suing the wily copier who makes changes to the design.

The EPO's statistics report an all-time filing high with some 234,000 new European patent applications filed in 2010. According to the EPO's website, this increase is partly a result of the economic recovery and partly a side-effect of "the EPO's introduction of new regulations which led applicants to file certain applications before the end of 2010". It is assumed that the latter comment hints at the new 24-months time limit under Rule 36(1) EPC and the associated transitional provision.

Timothy Trainer, founder of the Global Intellectual Property Strategy Center, spoke with Managing IP about why we need to change the IP conversation, how to help global Customs authorities enforce IP rights and what went wrong at the Uruguay Round

The period for public comments on the state of the UDRP closed on July 22.

Earlier articles showed how The Wayback Machine (www.archive.org) may be used to establish a date of public availability for a particular internet page, which may be usable in legal proceedings. However, certain pitfalls exist and need to be avoided in order for the evidence to withstand the scrutiny of the court or of the other party.

The Canadian Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that section 73 of the Patent Act does not apply to patents already issued, contradicting two previous judgments at the trial level

According to both the German Patent Act and the EPC, methods for treatment of the human body by surgery or therapy are excluded from patentability. While the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) of the EPO has already provided some guidelines (in G1/07), the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) had to wait some time for an opportunity to comment on this topic(BGH, X ZB 9/09).

Managing IP interviewed SIPO Commissioner Tian Lipu during last month’s China-International IP Forum. In this full transcript, he discusses China’s patent explosion, SIPO’s plans, revised rules and international cooperation

While David Kappos of the USPTO is struggling to get more money to cope with its backlog, SIPO is preparing to recruit 5,000 more examiners by 2015