Author name: Natalie

In April 2015, a Chinese court handed down a US$15.8 million dollar judgement against the US shoe manufacturer, New Balance for infringing a third party Chinese character mark. It was held that New Balance has used, knowingly and without authorisation the mark “新百伦” (pronounced as Xin Ba Lun meaning “New Balance” in English) in connection

The Peoples Republic of China Trade Marks Office (TMO) has recently adopted changes in the handling of non-standard descriptions of trade mark goods and services. Direct Filing with the TMO, including priority applications As a result of amendments to the PRC Trade Mark Law, the TMO is required to complete examination of a new application

Effective 29 May 2015, the UAE (pursuant to Cabinet Decree (9/2015)) increased the official government fees payable for various transactions at the Ministry of Economy, including trade mark fees. There is no transitional provision so the increase will apply to all fees payable after 29 May 2015. The increases to the official trade mark fees

On 21 March 2015 The Ministry of Economy and Trade in Lebanon declared a revision of the power of attorney requirements. Effective 1 May 2015, all powers of attorney submitted for handling all intellectual property matters in Lebanon by foreign (non-Lebanese) companies must be legalised by the Lebanese consulate. Applications filed prior to this date

On 20 February a public consultation paper was released detailing a number of new proposals put forward by IP Australia with a view of streamlining Australia’s IP systems. According to IP Australia, there are a number of administrative processes that differ between IP rights which are overly burdensome and take too long to resolve. The