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Over the past two years, Vietnam has become a battleground over IP rights in the pharmaceutical industry, especially in protecting and enforcing patent rights to prevent the illegal production and marketing of certain generic drugs. While previous decisions by the authorities have left pharmaceutical innovators puzzled and disappointed, a recent case shows that real progress is being made.

Africa is one of the economic success stories of our time: its economy has trebled since 2000; the growth forecast is in the order of 5%; it houses nine of the 15 fastest growing economies; and the emphasis is fast shifting from commodities to consumer spending, making it attractive for manufacturers of consumer goods. Hence the term 'Africa rising'.

Mexico still lacks of a specific body of legislation for data protection exclusivity (DPE). But, over the past few years, thorough litigation, based on an interpretation of international treaties (NAFTA & TRIPs) along with the Mexican legislation related to approval of new molecules (new chemical entities, formulations and new indications), means DPE for new chemical entities, formulations and new indications has been obtained.

For decades, national plant variety rights in Belgium have been governed by the Plant Variety Protection Act of May 20 1975. With the Plant Variety Protection Act of January 10 2011, the Belgian legislator followed the European Union's example by radically changing national plant variety protection. The entry into force of the new Act, however, required a royal decree. And so, another four years went by before the Royal Decree of May 12 2015 was finally issued. I will focus on a few important changes to the substantive plant variety law provisions effective as of July 1 2015.

The Dutch soccer team played two World Cup finals in 1974 and 1978. No need to elaborate on the scores. During that period, the German sports multinational Adidas was the sponsor of the Dutch team. Its competitor Puma was personal sponsor of Dutch star player Johan Cruyff. At that time, Adidas and Puma were in fierce competition. Puma forbid Cruyff to play in an Adidas jersey. The parties negotiated and it was agreed that Cruyff's jersey be adapted. Instead of the Adidas three-stripe pattern on the sleeves, worn by the team, Cruyff played with a two-stripe T-shirt.

Two decisions in Europe and the United States have addressed the licensing of standard- essential patents. Andrew Moir, David Wilson, Nic Ruesink- Brown, Joseph Falcone and Allison Alcasabas ask: have the courts provided a helping FRAND?

In Taiwan, the determination of patent validity is a dual-track system. According to the Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act, the IP Court will independently rule on patent validity issues in IP-related civil procedures. On the other hand, an alleged infringing party can file an invalidation action with the IP Office to challenge the validity of the patent in accordance with the Patent Law. When the validity of a patent is determined differently in final conclusive civil and administrative decisions, how the issues would be dealt with has thus received much attention. In this regard, in a recent rehearing case relating to a civil patent infringement litigation, the IP Court and the Supreme Court came to different opinions.

In Solid 21 v Hublot of America, et al, the US District Court for the Central District of California issued a ruling holding that once a term has become generic, it is always generic and cannot be the subject of trade mark protection under any circumstances even if the purported owner can demonstrate secondary meaning in that term.

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Since 2001, Australia has had a second tier innovation patent system that provides a very fast patent grant with a limited term, delayed examination and no obviousness test, but rather a reduced innovative step test.