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The Indonesian government has recognised several places as "areas having an intellectual property culture" in order to promote public participation to respect IP rights.

The use of a trade mark is of central importance in trade mark law. The first use of a trade mark may confer first ownership. Establishing the use of a trade mark is also important to mitigate the risk of expungement proceedings due to non-use and forms one of the key conditions to be satisfied in a trade mark infringement action.

Last year, in a major policy announcement, the government of India announced the creation of a think-tank headed by retired Justice Prabha Sridevan. The think-tank has a mandate to draft the first ever national IP policy for the government. The first draft of the new IP policy proposed by the think-tank was published on December 19 2014 and the think-tank has invited comments from stakeholders before the end of January.

Preventing former employees from divulging trade secrets to competitors has been a common concern for Taiwan's technology companies in recent years. In addition to using a contractual mechanism to impose non-competition and confidentiality obligations on employees within a certain period after termination of employment, technology companies generally need the support of regulation sanction and an efficient judicial system to protect their trade secrets.

A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam

In commercial lawsuits in general, and IP lawsuits in particular, the ability of rights holders to access one or more forms of injunctive relief is of utmost importance. The availability and effectiveness of preliminary injunctions can show to some extent the maturity and effectiveness of the enforcement system. For such reasons, a correct understanding of the applicability of preliminary injunctions in Vietnam is of practical use.

In past contributions, we have reported on the controversy over patent rights and plant breeding rights in The Netherlands. There has been increasing discussion about patents on plant breeding traits in recent years. Proponents of such patents claim that they foster innovation, knowledge-sharing and continued investments in research and development. Opponents argue that such patents are unnecessary because of the IP protection offered by plant breeders' rights, and that patents impede the work of breeders because they can no longer gain access to biological materials, or can do so only after a delay or at a high cost.

In Japan, the law provides several means to challenge the validity of patents, such as a trial for patent invalidation, an invalidity defence in an infringement litigation and an offer of information. The Patent Act 2014 amendment introduced a new option: the post-grant opposition system.

Singapore and China strengthened IP cooperation with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on October 27 2014 between the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) and the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) to jointly develop the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City.

According to Austrian law, reasons for trade mark invalidity, such as bad faith, can be raised as defences in an infringement action. Such defences have to be decided as preliminary questions.