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On December 8 2015, the Supreme Court, in a decision in four consolidated cases (GR Nos 209271, 209276, 209301 and 209430) permanently enjoined the field testing for Bt talong (genetically modified eggplant), declared the Department of Agriculture Administrative Order No 08, series of 2002 (DAO 08) as null and void, and temporarily enjoined any application for contained use, field testing, propagation, commercialisation, and importation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) until a new administrative order is promulgated in accordance with the law.

2015 saw a spate of noteworthy trade mark cases in the Malaysian courts. Geetha Kandiah and Rebecca Chong look at the lessons learned

When an EU trade mark (EUTM, formerly known as CTM) is registered its owner has five years to use it in a sufficiently broad way within the European Union. If he does not exceed his mere local use of his EUTM within this time slot, his EUTM is not only open to cancellation but he can also not derive rights from it to forbid others to use this mark and similar marks. This is what teaches us the following case.

Especially in recent years, trade mark owners and their representatives have been confronted with the difficulties of having their clients' 3D trade marks registered with their national office or OHIM.

In Philip Morris Brands Sarl v Rothmans Brands Sdn Bhd & Anor, the court held that collating information and gathering insights does not amount to "use" under the Trade Marks Act 1976 (TMA).

There is a positive development in data privacy protection in Indonesia, due to the issuance of a draft Ministerial Regulation on Data Protection (Draft Regulation) by the Ministry of Communications and Informatics of the Republic Indonesia (MOCI). This Draft Regulation was prepared as one of the implementing regulations of Law No 11 of 2008 on Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT Law) and Government Regulation No 82 of 2012 on the Implementation of Electronic Systems and Transactions (GR 82). In October 2015, the government also issued a draft Data Protection Law (Draft Law).

Bad faith filings by registry pirates in China continue to pose enormous challenges to brand owners, large and small, foreign and domestic.

The Patent Office considered an appeal filed by Brouwerij L Huygne company, Belgium on the decision of the examiner to refuse recognition in Russia of International Registration number 1141648 for goods in class 32 and services in class 43. The trade mark according to the International Registration is a depiction of a decapitation device, the guillotine, brought into general use by Dr Guillotin. For those who do not immediately understand there is also the word element "La Guillotine" across the device.

The patent law regime in Singapore is governed by the Patents Act (Chapter 221) which is based generally on the UK Patents Act 1977. The Patents Act was amended in 1995 to delete Section 13(2) of the Patents Act 1994 [UK Patents 1977, S 1(2)] which declared that certain subject matter, such as "a scheme, rule or method for performing a mental act, playing a game or doing business, or a program for a computer", are not inventions for the purposes of the Act and are therefore not patentable. This left the law open for including business methods and computer implemented inventions as patentable subject matter.

In a recent ruling (February 2 2016) the Court of Appeal The Hague assessed the validity of a patent and SPC of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The Court further decided on awarding costs based on European directive 2004/48/EC.