ARGENTINA: Increase of official fees

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ARGENTINA

Increase of official fees

The Argentinian Patent Office has recently increased their schedule of official fees.   read more 

BRAZIL

New Precedent for Prosecution Timeline - Possibility to request acceleration of prosecution through the civil courts - Potential prospective "exceptional" measures to reduce back-log.

The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office, which has been long since notorious for its decade long backlog of workloads in patent granting, has staked a landmark decision to award a preliminary injunction to a pharmaceutical company. The Court of Appeals considers that there may be cases in which future damages may not be enough to prevent irreparable damage and has allowed an interim injunction based on a patent application. This may set the precedent for other cases to be reviewed and processed on a more expeditious basis.   read more 

CAYMAN ISLANDS

New Design and Trademark Laws enter into force.

The Design Rights Registration Law and the Trademark Law enter into force on August 1st, 2016. The Design Rights Law will provide for existing registered UK and EU design rights to be registered in, and extended to, the Cayman Islands.   read more 

CHINA

Guidelines on counterfeiting - development of PPH programs - New Rules on TRAB procedures.

In March, the State Council of China issued a guideline on counterfeiting and IPR infringements demanding better market supervision system and improvements to the law, regulations and standards with appropriate information technology utilized in supervision. A group of IPR protection centers will be established to fast-track cases involving IPR infringement, according to the head of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).  read more 

EUROPEAN UNION

New Phases for EU Trade Mark Regulation and confirmation of the new online content portability regime.

Many amendments made to the EU Trademark Regulation, made on 3/23/16 will begin to come into effect in the next months, specifically four significant reforms on 1 October 2017.- Removal of graphical representation requirements - In theory this will facilitate the ease of registration for nontraditional trademarks with the EUIPO. Instead of being solely graphical, marks can be presented in whatever form is deemed relevant by the competent authorities in enabling the public recognition of the subject matter in question.
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INDIA

Revised guidelines for Computer related Inventions.

The Indian Patent Office issued, with immediate effect, another revised Guidelines on Examination of Computer Related Invention in order to provide a much needed clarity in the examination of these inventions. Amongst the major changes, we can highlight those related to (i) the test used for examining CRIs and (ii) the basis required in the specification to support CRIs.   read more 

IRAK

Revocation of formalities for TM registrations

The Trademark Office in Iraq has reworked their formalities for TM registrations in class 5(A), where they now require only a soft copy of the home registration certificate to be submitted in support of trademark applications upon filing, whereas the original copy legalized up to the Iraqi Consulate can be submitted within six month-time from the date of filing, without incurring additional fees.  read more 

ISRAEL

New directives related to licensing of funded technology and new guidelines related to prosecution of patents

The Israel Innovation Authority (the IIA) has published new directives which allow the licensing of IIA-funded technology outside of Israel. The IIA was set up in January 2017 to replace the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Economics and to administer government grants, extended to Israeli companies under the Law for the Encouragement of Research and Development in Industry, launched in 1984.   read more 

JORDAN

Accession to PCT

The accession procedures of Jordan to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) with the Secretary General of WIPO have been completed and took effect on 9 June 2017, making Jordan the 152nd member.

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KUWAIT

Completion of formal examination of patents

The Kuwaiti Patent Office recently announced that, in collaboration with the Gulf Cooperation Council Patent Office, they have completed all outstanding formal examinations for patents. It is anticipated that the KPO will communicate this news directly to the agents of records and advise on the next steps that are, at the moment, still unclear.   read more 

NEW ZAELAND

Joins the Global Patent Prosecution Highway

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand has recently joined the Global Patent Prosecution Highway (GPPH). It offers patent applicants in New Zealand with the possibility to accelerate their applications which meet the requirements set forth in this agreement (for example, when at least one claim of a patent is accepted by one of the participating national patent offices).   read more 

PERU

New formal provisions for trademark registration - Implementation of Peruvian Electronic Gazette.

New articles have been drafted in the registration of TM's in Peru. These have a number of defining features which have come into effect as of June 2017. Article 2 states that if a power of attorney has already been registered in public registries, it can also be enforced before the INDECOPI. In addition to this, any information which may be lacking at the time of filing, such as representation of the mark, the express description of products and / or services or the proof of payment of the fee will result in no formal date of entrance being assigned.   read more 

SOUTH KOREA

Extension of Grace period for design applications - Proof of priority eased - new venue to request revocation of patents.

Several amendments to the Design Protection Act were published on March 21 2017. The amendments will come into effect on September 22 2017. Among others, the grace period is extended from six months to one year and, in order to proof priority, other documents such as the World Intellectual Property Office's Digital Access Service will be valid.   read more 

SPAIN

Protective letters: The Spanish "Toro" is or is not a "BadToro"

The implementation of the new Patents Act in April of 2017, has allowed for the submission of protective letters, which will be accepted by all courts handling patent cases. Protective letters are to be effective for three months.   read more 

TAIWAN

New Trade Secrets Amendments - New process to evaluate inventiveness - Acceptance to defer substantive examination ? Grace period provisions amended.

The Taiwanese Intellectual Property Organization has recently published a new draft regarding their Trade Secrets Act. According to the Draft, any intentional use of misappropriated trade secrets outside of Taiwan will be pursued only on receipt of a formal complaint.   read more 

THAILAND

Amendments to combat online infringement.

Thailand has made recent additions to its IP law in order to combat online infringement. This will come into place via two major sections.   read more 

TURKEY

New IP Law to replace former Decrees

Industrial Property in Turkey have undergone an overhaul and transitioned from being governed by Decree Laws to Constitutional Law. The recently enacted IP Law underlines the developing IP market in Turkey as a result of growing economic conditions and the scope of EU integration as constant additional clauses were unable to keep up with the changing conditions.  read more