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In The Netherlands there are two theories concerning the scope of protection of designs with technical features, more specifically the scope of protection of their technical elements. The first one is the so-called apparaat gerichteleer (apparatus-focused doctrine). According to this theory, every design element of a product which is technical or functional should be excluded from design protection. The other one is the so-called resultaat gerichteleer (result-focused doctrine). This theory holds that design protection of technical or functional elements of a product is possible as long as there are alternative technical or functional elements at hand to achieve the same result.

The New Argentine Civil and Commercial Code, in effect as of August 1 2015, includes, when addressing different issues, regulations referred to intellectual property.

Many foreign trade mark owners rely heavily on their local distributors to get their products distributed in the Indonesian market and sometimes place too much trust in them considering the local distributors' local knowledge of the market. Consequently, some unfortunate cases can occur where the distributors take advantages of the rightful trade mark owner's lack of protection and seek the registration of the trade mark in their own names, without obtaining the trade mark owner's consent. This is done in the hope that once the distributorship ends, the existing registrations may serve as their leverage in seeking opportunities to continue selling.

Several judgments have been rendered on the scope of granting registration of patent term extension (PTE). Now a judgment regarding the scope of the extended patent right has been rendered for the first time.

Companies large and small are filing more and more trade mark applications in China to support product launches. But even companies without immediate plans to sell in China are filing more due to the risks posed by registry pirates including the possibility they will use pirated registrations to interfere with production and export from China by against their Chinese suppliers.

The seven-year veil of secrecy was lifted from the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) shortly before it was signed earlier this year. The TPP is a trade agreement among Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. Its stated goal is "to promote economic growth; support the creation and retention of jobs; enhance innovation, productivity and competitiveness; raise living standards; reduce poverty in our countries; and promote transparency, good governance, and enhance labor and environmental protections".

In this case, the plaintiff has produced since 1989 the well-known TV-series The Simpsons which has been shown in German-speaking countries since mid-1994 and in which beer under the fictitious name Duff is consumed. The producer owns EU trade mark number 8351091 for the word Duff for beer (application date June 9 2009 and registered on March 26 2014).

The appeal board of the patent office examined an appeal against refusal of registration of the trade mark Svenska Handelsbanken on IR number 1107500 filed by the Swedish company Svenska Handelsbanken АВ (publ) in respect of services in classes 35, 36, 45.

Practitioners before the EPO are aware that EPO proceedings are front-loaded. In effect, all evidence, amendments and arguments should be on file as early as possible in the proceedings. This especially applies to inter-partes proceedings, in which late-filed evidence or amendments could place other parties at a disadvantage.

In Taiwan, in the event that a departing employee joins a competitor of his/her former employer and thus breaches his/her contract of employment containing a non-competition clause, the former employer, depending on the degree of injury, cannot only claim damages but also seek an injunction or preliminary injunction to prevent its trade secrets or other intellectual property from being divulged. Back in 2014, TSMC successfully restrained its former head of R&D department from working for Samsung in a lawsuit upheld by the Supreme Court.