Top 10 Intellectual Property Headlines from Asia Pacific Ciba Inc. in a move against Sequent [Ciba Inc. & Anr. v. Sequent Scientific Ltd & Ors. Notice of Motion No.3472 OF 2009 in Suit No.2501 of 2009] alleged them for breach of confidentiality before the High Court of Bombay. As the world goes through a slowdown emanating from the shake up of the financial sector in the USA and wakes up to the ripple effects of globalization, it is natural to believe that the onslaught of recessionary forces will have their due bearing on Intellectual Properties (“IP”) and the strategies involving their protection, enforcement or commercialization. As a result of external pressures and to meet its own economic objectives, China has been moving its intellectual property rights (IPR) regime closer to those found in many more developed nations. One of the most important challenges for businesses today is to remain profitable in a global economy The PRC Patent Law was first promulgated in 1984 and has since been amended twice, in 1992 and 2000. Last week, on December 27, 2008, China passed the Third Amendment to the PRC Patent Law (the "New Patent Law"), which will become effective on October 1, 2009. Last month, the Federal Government announced that it will overhaul the privacy laws of Australia and implement a consistent privacy law regime. In pursuance of its obligations to implement border measures as envisaged in Articles 51 to 60 of the WTO Treaty on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), India has defined the role of the Customs Authorities in combating Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) infringements at the borders (land, sea and air). The Japan Fair Trade Commission ("JFTC") has announced a cease and desist order requiring that Qualcomm Inc. rescind license provisions that required licensees to cross-license their patents to Qualcomm and refrain from asserting their own patents against Qualcomm or Qualcomm licensees. Whilst the concept of conducting aninvestigation into the material aspects of a commercial transactionis not new, such due diligence investigations often focus on thetangible assets and ignore or at least give insufficient weight tothe intangible assets. After more than three years of preparation work, the revised PRC Patent Law ("New Patent Law") was finally promulgated on 27 December 2008 and will enter into force on 1 October 2009. | 
