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On September 8 2012, the Department of Justice (DoJ) published department circular 14 entitled Adopting Accreditation Guidelines for Alternative Dispute Resolution Provider Organizations and Training Standards for Alternative Dispute Resolution Practitioners. The DoJ has an attached agency called the Office for Alternative Dispute Resolution (OADR) which was established in December 2009 under department circular 98 when it issued the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the ADR Act 2004. The OADR has not been active since its creation, and it was only on August 17 2012 that DoJ Secretary Leila de Lima signed the accreditation guidelines in a forum organised for the event.

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court recently held the company names Mediconsult AG and Medical Consult AG to be confusingly similar, and overturned, on appeal, the contrary finding of the first instance Cantonal court.

The issue of whether a mark is descriptive or merely suggestive of the goods sought to be protected has always been a difficult area in Thailand. Though not many precedents are available, it was recently addressed by the Supreme Court in Liebherr-International v Department of Intellectual Property.

Following the big damages award to Apple by a California jury, under what circumstances is it worth requesting a jury rather than a judge?

Brands expanding into China, including a surprising number of basketball players, are finding they need to fight against existing trade mark registrations. Brandy Baker explains how to cancel a mark for non-use

Following the Prometheus case in the US, Jason Rutt compares the approaches of nine different patent offices to diagnostics, and finds surprising variety

To introduce Managing IP’s annual PCT?Survey, Simon Crompton and Peter Leung explain how patent owners should make use of the PCT’s new third-party observation system

Mexico’s draft copyright bill could be the first to effectively combine the interests of stakeholders in the digital copyright debate, says Luis Schmidt

Following the practice of speedy proceedings and decisions in IP cases before the Dutch courts at first instance, the Court of Appeal in The Hague has recently announced that from September 1 2012 they will introduce a shortened procedure as alternative to the normal appeal. One of the prerequisites in such a procedure is that both parties agree to it and stick to its indicated timelines.

Passed by Congress on September 16 2011, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) will usher in the biggest amendments to the US patent system in the past 60 years. One change for applicants filing under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is scheduled to take effect on September 16 2012.