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Echo Xu of Beijing Kangrui Law Firm examines a number of cases which consider whether original equipment manufacturers are “using” a trademark when they affix it to a product which will be exported from China

Singapore design registrants are able to enjoy greater benefits from March 19 2020 as the city-state has become the 58th member to join the Locarno Agreement, an international agreement on classification of industrial designs.

The new trademark law implementing the EU Directive has been applicable since December 11 and has introduced important changes.

On October 2 2019, Brazil joined the Madrid protocol. The success of this can be proven by numbers.

Although there are several and severe restrictions due to COVID-19 in Greece, which inevitably affect trademark practice in relation to both prosecution and litigation, there is some good news in the field. The new law on trademarks has come into force, implementing Directive (EU) 2015/2436.

Indirect infringement is not explicitly dealt with in the Turkish IP Law. However, the legislator confers, via Article 86 of the Industrial Property Code (IPC), a right to the patent holder to prevent third parties from supplying essential elements of the invention to unauthorised people, which will eventually lead to the working of the patented invention. In order for this provision to be implemented, third parties must be aware that these elements or instruments are sufficient to work the invention, and should be aware that they will be used for this purpose, or this situation should be clear enough.

As of December 2019, designs of trendy fashion items can be registered within 10 days in Korea.

A trademark application for Class 41 was filed under No 2018735958 with a priority date of August 20 2018.

In the future, it will be more difficult to obtain an injunction for patent infringement through preliminary injunction proceedings.

C.A. Brijesh and Sakshi Sharma of Remfry & Sagar examine the law on designs in India, detailing the requirements for design protection and assessing the overlap between this form of protection and copyright and trademark law

The owner of the trademarks "Miss Austria", "Miss Oberösterreich" (Miss Upper Austria) and further Miss-marks granted a licence to the defendant to use these marks for five years. These trademarks – as one can guess – are registered for an organisation handling beauty contests and the elections of the most beautiful women in an area. The contract contains a clause that allows immediate cancellation of the licence if there is violation by the licensee of any contractual duty. It also prohibits competition by the licensee in this field outside the licence and the use of similar trademarks to those licensed.

The Brazilian PTO celebrated a remarkable achievement at the beginning of the new year. In just four months, the office managed to reduce the patent backlog by 14%. Further important milestones towards eliminating the backlog for good are expected to be reached throughout the year, as the office intends to reduce the backlog by 80% by 2021. This was all possible due to a pioneer project called the Preliminary Standardized Office Action Program, implemented in September 2019. Once the project is successfully completed, the PTO estimates it will take under 24 months to examine new applications.