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The European trade mark office is getting ready to provide a mediation service for trade mark owners and applicants, which could begin at the end of the month. The Office says it will provide mediation without charge for parties who attend its Alicante headquarters. It plans to offer mediation for appeals cases, but might expand its service to cover cancellation and opposition cases.

Samsung was barred from distributing three models of its Galaxy smartphone after rival Apple won a preliminary injunction in The Netherlands. In a decision from late August, Judge Brinkman of the Hague District Court granted the injunction after provisionally finding that Samsung infringed Apple's European patent for a portable electronic device for photo management. The decision is effective from the middle of this month. It applies to Samsung's Galaxy S, S II and Ace smartphones on penalty of a payment of €100,000 a day or €10 for each infringing product. The judge found that other rights asserted by Apple, including patents and designs, were not infringed. He also declined to issue an injunction against Samsung's Galaxy tablet computer. The extent to which the injunction will prevent Samsung distributing its products in other European countries is unclear at this stage. The patent at issue is valid in a number of other European countries. Samsung may also be able to reengineer its phones and design around the Apple patent. The decision proved that cross-border injunctions in preliminary proceedings are alive and well in the Netherlands.

The USPTO had begun hiring, accusations of malpractice were being made and WIPO had welcomed a new era of harmonisation, even before Barack Obama got to the podium. Eileen McDermott, Patrick Ross and Karen Bolipata report from Washington, New York and Los Angeles

I clearly remember watching Stanley Kubricks' 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was a teenager. It was abstract, both in method and presentation. It made little more sense than French films like Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville, but it presented such a grand vision, in such grand style, that you just stared credulously at the apes and that big, black tablet.

GUATEMALA: The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) will enter into force in Guatemala on October 14, after the country acceded to the Treaty in July. Guatemala will be the 133rd member of the PCT.

Despite worries among the internet community, .eu launched smoothly on December 7. But, as James Nurton reports, the real test of the new domain is still to come

The USPTO will launch the first part of its new three-track patent application system on Monday, as mandated by the America Invents Act

The world's patent industries have watched while India brought in a patent regime to make life-saving drugs accessible. India has succeeded, says Vidisha Garg of Anand and Anand

A trio of gambling websites has been put on sale at the online domain name marketplace Sedo.

In an interview with Managing IP, ICANN chief executive Rod Beckstrom explained why the new gTLD programme will not be delayed by brand owners’ concerns