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The supervisory authority of the EPO, the Administrative Council, decided in its July meeting on the long-debated structural reform of the Boards of Appeal. Despite rumours that the Boards would be moved away from Munich to for example Berlin or Vienna, the AC eventually decided that the Boards will remain in Munich, albeit in premises not shared with other departments of the EPO.

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.

On July 19 2016, the Supreme Court (SC), in GR 204605, entitled Intellectual Property Association of the Philippines (IPAP) v Hon. Paquito Ochoa, in his capacity as Executive Secretary, et al, ruled that the Madrid Protocol is an executive agreement and that its ratification by President Aquino is valid and constitutional.

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.

Under a recent judgement of the Specialized IP Civil Court the trade mark Havaianas was found to be a famous trade mark, which may enjoy broader protection provided by law for trade marks of such status.

Earth Wind & Fire is the name of a music band founded in 1965 by the drummer Maurice White. Since 1975 that formation has celebrated worldwide successes and earned Grammies and gold- and platinum albums. The band became famous also in Austria and was famous at the time of priority (2003) of the attacked trade mark. It was from 1977 onwards in the Austrian charts, also at the time of priority. This was so irrespective of whether Maurice White played with his band at that time.

Recently, the Australian Patent Office has allowed a patent application for an unfertilised ovum in an application directed to the parthenogenic activation of human oocytes for production of human stem cells.

Richard Binns and Nicola Walles consider the impact of the Court of Justice of the EU’s recent ruling on the payment of royalties for unpatented technology

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.

The Korean Patent Act has been revised twice in the year 2016 and the revisions are quite substantial. Some of the new revisions will become effective from June 30 2016 and others from March 1 2017. The major revisions include the following: