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With the recent revisions to the PRC Trade Mark Law that took effect on May 1 2014, it's helpful to review some best practices in China trade mark prosecution, particularly in light of changes in TMO practices following the revisions to the law. Trade mark squatting in China remains rampant, and for companies big and small, it often is a matter of time before your brand is pirated. Filing trade mark applications is usually less expensive than filing trade mark oppositions or buying brands from pirates. So it's best to file early, and well before launching a brand in the PRC.

This year, the Indonesian government enacted new Government Regulation 45 Year 2014 on July 3 (PP number 45/2014), replacing the former Government Regulation 38 Year 2009 (PP number 38/2009) on types and rates of non-tax state revenue applicable to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights in which official fees for trade mark prosecution are regulated. PP number 45/2014 regulates the new tariff for filing trade mark applications, which is increased from Rp600,000 ($50) to Rp1 million.

In several cases, a trade mark cannot be registered, even when it has sufficient distinctiveness. For example, Section 3 (d) of the Trade Mark Law prohibits the registration of "those marks that are susceptible of inducing error with respect to the nature, properties, virtues, quality, manufacturing techniques, function, origin, price or other characteristics of the products or services to be distinguished".

In recent months, business owners and associations in Malaysia have, via various channels, vented their frustration over the high-handed manner in which a collecting society for performers had been collecting its fees from music users, such as retailers and shopkeepers.

The Russian Patent Office rejected registration of a trade mark in application 2012715514 with priority of May 14 2012 in the name of a Russian company Tarantino Ltd Co. The designation is a figurative representation of the relevant name.

On September 10, the Intellectual Property Office (IPOPHL) launched the Community Review Process open to all industry associations. This is in line with its objective to promote transparency and facilitate the flow of information in granting patents, utility model and industrial design registrations.

In an infringement lawsuit, a patentee may choose to claim damages calculated according to the profits gained by the infringer from the infringing act, based on Article 97.1.2 of the Patent Act. In this case, the infringer needs to prove his costs and necessary expenses so that they can be deducted from his profits gained from the sale of the infringing product. However, the Patent Act does not mention the calculation of costs and necessary expenses.

Since March 1 2011, when the Mexican Institute of the Industrial Property (IMPI) established with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) a pilot programme for the Patent Prosecution Highway, the trend has continued with different offices.

The reissue of music and even groups that were hits in the past is becoming more and more common. One practice is for an artist to build a new career leveraging the former group’s name but, as Marianna Furtado de Mendonça discusses, this can raise problems

China's legislature passed a bill on August 31 to establish specialised IP courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Under the bill, the new courts will: