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How do regular attendees manage sessions, meetings and seeing the sights at the annual meeting?

A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam – who received the world’s first recorded patent in 1449 diary@managingip.com

The European Patent Office has released its 2011 statistics, according to which the number of new patent applications filed has reached an all-time high of 244,437. Some 24% of the new applications filed in 2011 originate from the US (28% in 2007), and 32% come from Asia (25% in 2007). EPO member states account for 38% of all filings (40% in 2007). Some 33,181 applications were filed by German applicants, and 12,107 by applicants in France. Switzerland comes in third. The number of UK-based applications has dropped by 9.4% compared to the previous year to a total of 6,464.

In nullity suits before the German Federal Patent Court, the verdict of the Court has a binding legal effect on the parties involved. Thus, the nullity plaintiff having lost a suit cannot file a further nullity suit against the same patent for the same reasons. The legal effect of the Court's verdict is supposed to finally settle the dispute between the parties involved and an exception to this rule can only be acknowledged under very specific exceptional circumstances.

On December 8 2011, the District Administrative Court dismissed an appeal by the holder of the word and design mark Sphinx, filed against the decision of the Polish Patent Office dismissing invalidation of the word and design trade mark Cleopatra.

On March 30 the Directive Council of the Portuguese PTMO (INPI) issued decisions 01/2012 and 02/2012 updating their internal procedures on supplementary protection certificates (SPCs), in order to reflect the recent decisions by the Court of Justice of the EU in Merck, Medeva, Georgetown, Yeda, Queensland and Daiichi.

In December 2010 and January 2011, Szekely Domokos Szabolcs filed two national trade mark applications consisting of the figurative element showing an interdiction sign of a pregnant woman drinking:

With the 2012 Olympic games coming to London this summer, many companies are looking for ways to try and capitalise on the attention and popularity of this international spectacle. Olympic sponsorships and licensing opportunities are a big business and some companies spend millions of dollars for the right to associate themselves with the Olympics. Other companies, however, try to capitalise on the Olympics by engaging in guerrilla marketing, a strategy which can bring with it significant legal risks.

James Brady, Jeremy Cubert and Eric Silverman identify the types of patents at risk under the Mayo v Prometheus decision and how best to defend them under the new law

Non-traditional trade marks often have to overcome scepticism from IP offices, even when permitted by law. Five firms give their advice on winning registration, and alternatives avenues for protection