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On August 1 2012, the Administrative Measures for Prioritised Examination of Patent Applications for Inventions came into force, which will allow invention patent applications to be examined in an expedited manner. Under the Measures, the prioritised examination procedure will last less than a year and the first office action will be issued within 30 working days, from from the date on which the prioritised examination is granted.

Eight years ago, the Beijing High Court rejected Apple Inc's application for its bitten apple trade mark in class 25, due to a prior registered apple trade mark in the same class owned by a Chinese company, regardless of the high reputation of the opposed trade mark all over the world, including China.

A settlement between HTC and Apple that was announced by the two companies last month will end at least 10 unresolved lawsuits across three countries involving around 39 patents and 21 firms. In the UK, there were two trials scheduled for lawsuits brought by HTC against Apple.

US litigation being fought between two shoe makers could force brand owners to think twice about suing for trade mark infringement. After being sued by Nike for allegedly infringing its mark on a best-selling pair of trainers, sports manufacturer Already is urging the Supreme Court to let it pursue cancellation of the mark despite Nike's efforts to drop the case. If Already prevails, trade mark owners will no longer be able to automatically end litigation by signing a covenant promising not to sue their competitors. By signing the covenant, brand owners aim to strip the district court of jurisdiction over the infringer's declaratory judgment claim or counterclaim for cancellation of the mark.

From December 1, Australia will adopt plain packaging for tobacco products – a standardised pack on which is printed the trade mark in standard size, font and place, with no logo and no colour. The aim is to knock out the attractive appearance of the packaging, supposedly suggesting a "glamorous" world of tobacco.

What is the best balance between firewalls and actively pursuing attackers?

Just 16% of internet users would be put off if they received a letter informing them their account had been used to infringe copyright, according to a study commissioned by UK regulator Ofcom. The study was conducted by Kaspar Media and involved online and face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of 4400 people. It was financially supported by the UK IPO. The UK's Digital Economy Act provides for warning letters to be sent to internet subscribers who have downloaded illegal content. But its implementation has been delayed by legal challenges, and the first letters are not expected to be sent out until the middle of 2014 at the earliest.

Article 4 of the EU SPC Regulation only grants purpose-bound protection for SPCs (special purpose certificates). Nevertheless, the specific drug's use (its purpose) is supposedly of no relevance concerning the obtaining provisions in article 3, as held by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in Yissum, where the court declined to recognise a marketing authorisation (MA) for a new medicinal indication of a formerly authorised substance as the first MA in terms of article 3(d). This appears to be contradictory.

Norton Rose has hired IP litigator Huw Evans from Allen & Overy in London. Evans, who works predominantly on patent cases, will join Norton Rose as a partner in its dispute resolution practice. He is the third new partner to join the team since July 2012, following the appointments of Neil O'May and Liam O'Connell, who joined from Bindams and CMS Cameron McKenna respectively.

EPO President Benoit Battistelli is “confident, after long discussions, that EU authorities [Council of Ministers and European Parliament] will agree on a unitary patent package next week” he said today