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Luis C Schmidt of Olivares & Cia dicusses the liability of intermediaries and other problems posed by digital technology

Víctor Garrido of Dumont Bergman Bider & Co discusses the convergence and divergence between Bilski and the Mexican patent system

Three major changes to Mexico’s IP system bode well for innovation and international investment. Eileen McDermott reports

This year has seen a number of important steps for IP rights in Vietnam, beginning with amendments to the Law on Intellectual Property, which became effective on January 1 2010, and ending with substantial developments in IP enforcement. Two of the most notable developments were the first-ever court ruling on patent infringement in Vietnam and the issuance of a new decree that revises and clarifies the sanctions for IP violations.

As of July 1 2010 a national representative for an applicant who is not a resident in Norway is no longer required. The earlier requirements for a national representative set out in The Norwegian Patents Act, Design Act and Trademark Act have been deleted. The right of being represented by a national representative is now regulated by the Public Administration Act, Section 12. The Norwegian Patents Act, Design Act and Trademark Act now provide a requirement of a correspondence address of the applicant or right holder, opponent or similar. If the applicant or right holder is represented by a national representative, the correspondence address is the address of the representative. The Norwegian Industrial Property Office will forward all communications to the correspondence address by regular mail. If the mail delivery of the communication fails due to errors in the correspondence address, any term set out in the communication will still continue to run. A notice of this communication will however be made public in the Norwegian Gazette.

International Non-Proprietary Names (INNs) are names for pharmaceutical substances or active pharmaceutical ingredients recognised as public property. They are treated as generic names by international authorities, with around 8,000 published at present.

Credit Agricole filed four oppositions before the Trademarks Administrative Commission against national applications filed by a Greek banking Company, consisting of the words Green Bank together with a tree device and Green Banking with the same device, together with the name of their applicant (a Greek bank). The oppositions were based on Credit Agricole's CTM registration for Green Bank.

Qing Ge of Liu, Shen & Associates considers potential problems for patent owners as a result of the changes introduced by the new juridical interpretation

Managing IP, in association with Oblon Spivak McClelland Maier & Neustadt, gathered together representatives of the different views on patent reform in the US to discuss the major changes planned, and the impact they will have on IP owners and applicants

James Nurton, Toronto