Trademark & IP NewsGlobal developments, with a trademark and brand focus.
Explore global trademark, brand protection and related intellectual property developments, selected by Liangma Legalmark Trademark Team and organised by topic and publication date.
Liangma Legalmark Trademark Team selects and explains industry developments. Event dates are stated in each article.
An Administrative Panel of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has ruled on the complaint filed by French retail chain E.Leclerc (Case No. D2026-3790), finding that leclerc-precommande-gta6.com is confusingly similar to the LECLERC trademark, that the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name, and that the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith, and has ordered its transfer to the complainant. The domain name was previously a website imitating the complainant's pre-order page; it is now inactive, but the Panel still found bad faith under the "passive holding" rule, which is unaffected.
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From 2026 to 15, 10, 14, the Ninth World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Intellectual Property Judges Forum was held at the WIPO headquarters in Geneva and online, with over 970 registered judges, of whom 167 attended in person. Three of the nine sessions focused directly on artificial intelligence, respectively addressing AI-assisted and AI-generated outputs, the use of protected works in AI model training, and the use of AI in court proceedings; the remaining six sessions covered topics including software and digital technology patents, trademark fair use, platform and intermediary liability, and cross-border disputes.
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The Administrative Panel of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center has issued a decision in the case brought by Voith GmbH & Co. KGaA against the domain name voiths.sbs (Case No. D2026-4018), finding that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to the VOITH trademark, that the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name, and that the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith; pursuant to Paragraph 4(i) of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and Paragraph 15 of the Rules of Procedure, it ordered the transfer of voiths.sbs to the complainant. The decision specifically records that the respondent not only copied the complainant's official website but also rewrote the references to static resources in the page code from the complainant's genuine host static.voith.com to a host under its own control, static.voiths.sbs; this technical modification was treated by the Panel as key evidence of "active, calculated impersonation."
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An Administrative Panel of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has issued a decision (Case No. D2026-3708) in the complaint brought by The Village Company, LLC against the Chinese respondent Yang Lou, finding that the disputed domain name the-mrbubbles.com is confusingly similar to the MR. BUBBLE trademark, that the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests, and that the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith, and ordering that the domain name be transferred to the complainant. At the time of the decision, the domain name was still redirecting to a third-party website that misappropriates the MR. BUBBLE brand.
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The China National Intellectual Property Administration announced on 10 month 21 day that the Fifteenth China International Patent Technology and Products Fair will be held from 11 month 6 day to 8 day, 2026, at the Taihu International Expo Center in Wuxi, Jiangsu, under the theme "Patents Link Innovation, Transformation Releases Value," with 2.2 square meters of exhibition space, 8 exhibition zones, and more than 40 events. This edition highlights transaction attributes and internationalization, and will launch the first intellectual property equity investment fund of 10 billion yuan at the prefecture-level city level nationwide.
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On 14, 10, 2026, the Select Committee of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation held its 36 meeting. According to the European Patent Office operational report, since the Unitary Patent system was launched in 6, 2023, approximately 10.8 ten thousand requests for unitary effect have been received, with an average processing time of less than 10 days; the adoption rate among patent proprietors within the EU is close to 44%, and nearly two-thirds of European SMEs seeking patent protection choose the Unitary Patent; the global adoption rate has risen to approximately 31%, higher than 28.7% in 2025 and 25.6% in 2024.
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The Supreme People's Court (2024) Judgment No. 931 of the Supreme People's Court (Administrative) clearly establishes: in a drug patent linkage lawsuit, where the patentee amends the claims and the amendment is accepted by the China National Intellectual Property Administration, such that the amended claims no longer constitute the "relevant patent right" referred to in Article seventy-six, paragraph one of the Patent Law, and the generic drug applicant does not agree to use them as the basis for trial, the case loses its basis for continued trial—if it is a civil case, the claims are dismissed by judgment; if it is an administrative adjudication case, only the adjudication is revoked, without an order to re-decide.
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On 2026, 10, 22, the "Executive Yuan" of the Taiwan region of China passed at its 4026th meeting a draft amendment to certain provisions of the "Patent Act", with five key points: computer-generated images and graphical user interfaces may be protected independently as subject matter of design patents; combined filing of similar designs is added; the design patent grace period is extended from 6 months to 12 months; the time limit for filing a divisional application after approval and issuance is relaxed; and the change of the name of the right holder in disputes over ownership of rights is relaxed. The draft will be sent to the legislative body of the Taiwan region for deliberation.
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On 2026, 10, 19, the U.S. Supreme Court in BMG Rights Management v. Vetter (No. 25-1391) affirmed the judgment of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that an author's termination under Section 304(c) of the Copyright Act of a worldwide assignment made before 1978 can recapture the rights to the work abroad. This affirmance, however, is not a ruling on the merits: four Justices did not participate in the consideration, and the remaining five did not constitute a quorum, so the Supreme Court acted under 28 U.S.C. § 2109, with the effect of an "equally divided affirmance," carrying no precedential effect and binding only in the three states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.
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The World Intellectual Property Organization's "Global Innovation Index 2026" report, themed "Powering Entrepreneurs at the Frontier of Science," covers 139 economies and the world's top hundred innovation clusters. The report shows that since 2000, more than 3 deep tech startups have been founded worldwide, with a combined valuation of 7.6 trillion US dollars, attracting 1220 billion US dollars in venture capital in 2025; of these, 50% hold patents, far above the 15.4% of other startups.
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On 9 29, 2026, the World Intellectual Property Organization released the Global Innovation Index Report 2026. The report assessed 139 economies worldwide. China ranked 10, unchanged from the previous year, entering the top ten for the second consecutive year and being the only middle-income economy among the top ten; it remained first among 35 upper-middle-income economies, with 7 sub-indicators ranking first globally. A total of 25 Chinese clusters entered the global top hundred, ranking first in the world for the fourth consecutive year, and the "Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou" cluster topped the list for the second consecutive year.
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In decision T 1254/24, the European Patent Office Board of Appeal dismissed the opponent's appeal and maintained European Patent No. 2 163 423. In its interpretation of feature M 9 of claim 1, the Board held that the slot must be formed in the rigid shell rather than in the cover, and on that basis found the patent novel over the Apollo and Odyssey seats and document D 1.
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