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The Swiss Federal Patent Court has allowed a facilitated recovery of illicit profits in favour of the owner of an infringed patent in a recent judgement.

October 3 witnessed an event of significant legal import in Vietnam that attracted the attention of many practitioners in the IP field, and especially those concerned with methods of resolving .vn domain name cases via administrative measures. This notable event was the forced revocation of the domain name Amway2u.vn by VNNIC, the state body administering domain names in Vietnam, after its initial resistance to do so. It was a groundbreaking success in application of coercive administrative measures in domain name disputes in Vietnam.

As the United States continues its transition to the first-inventor-to-file (FITF) system, which became effective in March, 2013, it is worthwhile to recall that some situations give rise to exceptions that excuse strict application of first-to-file rules. Among these exceptions is the so-called first-to-publish exception which excuses an intervening publication by a third party which, although independent of the inventors' work, was published after a prior publication attributable to the inventors.

In 2012, Google filed a Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) Complaint following the registration by a third party of several hundred domain names which combined the word "Google" with another word element. The Administrative Panel ruled in favor of Google, ordering the transfer of the domain names to Google.

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

There are a range of legal and practical reasons for foreign trade mark owners to record licences of their registered Chinese trade marks with the China Trade Mark Office (TMO). But recent changes to both the Trade Mark Law (TML) and other regulations mean that licensors can now avoid the headaches of recordation in most circumstances.

With the aim of reinforcing French national patents, France is contemplating (1) modifying the law concerning the national phase in France based on a PCT application and (2) introducing a national opposition. These changes are expected to be made in the near future (2015-16).

Since the reform of IP proceedings in 2014, all appeals from the Austrian Patent Office are to be prosecuted before the Upper Provincial Court in Vienna (OLG Wien) with a further appeal to the Austrian Supreme Court (OGH). This change was demanded by the whole IP profession. It turned out to be successful since now the time from filing an appeal to a decision by the court is very much shorter than before.

In many countries in Latin America, the regulations which allow assuring the quality of pharmaceutical products have not kept pace with those implemented in countries with better health control.

The Australian Competition Review Panel (the Harper Review) has recently released its draft report targeting intellectual property.