Worldwide: Intellectual Property

On 30 July 2026, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) published the revised Measures for Priority Examination of Patent Applications, which will take effect on 1 September 2026. The current version in force, published in 2017, will be repealed on the same date.

Trademark classification looks, on paper, like some administrative formality, like a checkbox thing tucked somewhere in between the process of filing a trademark application. But in real life, it can be one of the most consequential choices a business makes when it is building its brand. Things can show up months or years later, as an opposition, a blocked expansion, or a competitor running a near identical brand in a space the original owner thought was already safely covered.

Japanese police have arrested an alleged first uploader on Nyaa, the torrent index at the heart of anime piracy, marking a strategic shift from blocking sites to targeting source distributors. Using attribution tools developed under CODA's Cross-Border Enforcement Project, investigators identified and detained a Kanagawa resident suspected of seeding an NHK drama and numerous other works. This case signals a new enforcement approach focused on chokepoints in the distribution chain rather than endless domain