China plans to restructure the State Intellectual Property Office to strengthen protection of intellectual property rights, according to the State institutional reform plan of the State Council. The office will incorporate part of functions of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, to solve problems including separated administration and overlapping enforcement. The new agency will be responsible for facilitating the construction of an [...]

Using terms in your branding that have a ‘descriptive’ quality i.e. that do not distinguish your product from other traders, can later be problematic when you want to stop other traders from using the term. This was seen recently in the Full Federal Court’s dismissal of an appeal by Stone & Wood Group Pty Ltd (Stone & Wood) against Intellectual Property Development Corporation Pty Ltd and Elixir Signature Pty Ltd (Elixir).i In 2010, Stone & Wood [...]

The Directive 2016/943 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure ("Directive") was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 8 June 2016 and entered into force on 5 July 2016. The reason behind the adaptation of the Directive was that there is a great divergence between the regulations of Member States on trade secrets and know-how, thus, the protection of trade [...]