The protection provided under industrial property law to commercial signs registered with the National Institute of Industrial Property is more effective than that offered by unfair competition law. It is therefore worth questioning whether unfair competition law exercises any function with regard to the protection of registered signs. There may be sectors in which the protection of a rights holder's interest requires the combined use of IP and competition law.

The Federal Court recently issued two decisions relating to Pharmascience's claim for Section 8 damages under the pre-amended Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations for its pregabalin product (Pfizer's Lyrica). In the first, the court granted motion for summary trial on the relevance of Pfizer's ex turpi causa defence; in the second, it overturned the prothonotary's order, which had denied Pfizer leave to amend a pleading.

The Lahore High Court recently heard an appeal of the registrar of trademarks' decision to delete a mark on the grounds of non-use. The appellant had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove its mark, whereas the respondent had filed extensive documentary evidence to show that it was a bona fide manufacturer and user of the relevant trademark.

The Barcelona Court of Appeal, following European Court of Justice case law regarding the exhaustion of the trademark rights, recently declared that Red Paralela SL and Red Paralela BCN SL had infringed Schweppes International Limited's Spanish trademarks by importing and commercialising in Spain Schweppes-branded tonics which had been manufactured in the United Kingdom by Coca-Cola/Atlantic Industries, the owner of the UK SCHWEPPES trademarks.

A design is accepted as having individual character if its overall impression could be distinguished by a so-called 'informed user' from a prior design made available to the public. Therefore, if the informed user considers the overall impression of a new design to be different from a design previously made available to the public, the latter design will be considered eligible for protection.