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The Swiss Federal Administrative Court has, upon appeal, held the mark Gap registrable as a trade mark for goods in class 28 (essentially toys and pet toys).

During the past two years, the Mexican Patent and Trademark Office (IMPI) has established a new criterion on its practice for filling divisional applications due to a unity of invention requirement during substantive examination.

Making movies available for downloading without the right holder's permission is copyright infringement. The movie must be hosted before it can be linked to, and such hosting is infringement. However, since films can be uploaded and stored anywhere, it is the internet service providers (ISPs) which link to the pirate films that provide a more effective target to sue to prevent such linking and thereby to minimise downloading than the parties uploading films to the internet.

In two recent judgments, the Honourable Delhi High Court granted ex parte injunction orders against innumerable and unnamed defendants to prevent communication of certain cinematograph films to the public, the copyright over which was owned by the plaintiff. The production house in question was Reliance Entertainment and the orders of the Court are dated July 20 2011 (for the film Singham) and August 26 2011 (for the film Bodyguard).

According to the German Patent Act, an applicant or his successor in title may file within 12 months from the filing date of an earlier patent or utility model application a later patent application in Germany, claiming the priority of the first. Under German legal practice, it has been clear for a long time that where the first application is a foreign application, the priority right could be assigned to the applicant of the later German patent application independently of the first foreign application, so without assigning the first. It was unclear whether this is also the case with a national first filing. There was commentary literature that in such cases the applicant (or legal successor) of first and later filing needs to be identical to validly claim a priority. In a recently decided case, the German Federal Patent Court made it clear that the national priority right is also an independent and freely assignable right, which can be validly transferred to a legal successor without assigning the first national application.

A relatively easy and relevant way to enforce evidence of infringement in France and in Belgium is to implement infringement seizures.

The PRC Trade Marks Law prohibits registration of a trade mark that incorporates geographical indication when the commodities concerned do not originate from that geographical region, such that the trade mark would mislead the public. Geographical indications refer to an indication of the geographical origin of the commodities, whose given quality, reputation and other characteristics are determined by the natural factors or human factors of that region.

Google was recently condemned in a case in Belgium that could have implications in Europe for news indexes provided by search engines.

Traditionally, where no design or patent rights exist, Australia has allowed rival traders to copy the look and feel of a product without concern as to the originator's rights. However, recently in Peter Bodum A/S & Ors v DKSH Australia Pty Ltd (2011), the Full Federal Court enforced some residual reputational rights to the well-known Bodum Chambord coffee plunger.

Geoffrey Lin has left Hogan Lovells to join the Shanghai office of Ropes & Gray as a partner. Lin will be working with corporate lawyers at the firm, which set up its Shanghai office in July, to value the IP assets within deals and to structure the transactions.