Insights

China's revised Trademark Law, adopted on 26 June 2026, applies from 1 January 2027. For foreign brand owners holding Chinese registrations, two changes matter most. A registration that has not been used can now be cancelled by the trademark authority on its own initiative, not only at a competitor's request. And filings that clearly exceed genuine business needs can be refused and fined. Our Weekly IP Brief summarised the change; this guide explains what it means for foreign portfolios and what to do before 1 January 2027.

On 7 October 2026 the US Copyright Office published a notice of inquiry on music streaming fraud in the Federal Register, seeking public comment. The inquiry responds to a letter from Representative Scott Fitzgerald asking the Office to examine the prevalence of streaming fraud across digital platforms and how it may be affecting the music industry as a whole. Written comments are due by 23 November 2026 and reply comments by 21 December 2026, both through the federal eRulemaking portal. The notice explains that under pro-rata royalty systems fraudsters use bot farms, click farms, playlist stuffing, account hijacking and other methods to inflate plays and divert money from the rights owners of legitimately streamed works; the primary harm is the dilution of the royalty pool, and it can also affect where songs are placed in platform playlists and algorithmic queues.

From today, 8 October 2026, the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks is in force for Saudi Arabia. Trade mark holders in other Madrid members can now designate Saudi Arabia in new international applications or extend existing international registrations to it through subsequent designation, while Saudi applicants can use a national basic application or registration to seek protection in other members through the Madrid System. According to the depositary notification issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Saudi Arabia deposited its instrument of accession on 8 July 2026 and the Protocol enters into force for it on 8 October.

On 7 October 2026 the specialised patent court in The Hague found that Merck infringes one of Halozyme's MDASE European patents, EP 2,797,622 (EP622), and rejected Merck's argument that the patent is invalid. The court ordered MSD BV, Merck's central European marketing authorisation holder and worldwide packaging and distribution hub, to refrain from manufacturing, offering, placing on the market and using, or importing or stocking for those purposes, subcutaneous Keytruda (Keytruda SC) in Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The injunction also bars MSD BV from facilitating infringement by its affiliates, including by allowing use of its European marketing authorisation. According to reports, Merck said it strongly disagreed with the ruling and would seek to overturn it.

The ruling concerns only the subcutaneous formulation; Halozyme says the intravenous version of Keytruda is not covered by the patent or the injunction and remains available to patients.

Foreign companies end up assigning Chinese trademarks for several reasons: buying back a mark that a distributor or squatter registered, moving marks to a Chinese subsidiary, or cleaning up after a merger. An assignment looks like a simple change of owner, but CNIPA checks whether related marks are transferred together, whether the parties qualify and whether the mark is pledged or seized. Applications are refused, or treated as abandoned, more often than buyers expect. This guide explains the rules, the procedure and the risks to manage when buying or transferring a mark in China.

The Swedish industrial group SKF launched a global advertising campaign on 30 September 2026 in which artificial intelligence recreates the Hollywood star Greta Garbo, who died in 1990, to promote its magnetic bearing solutions. SKF says that before she became famous Garbo appeared in a film promoting Swedish industry to an international audience, with SKF among the companies featured, and that the project was developed in collaboration with Garbo's family and Harriet Brown & Company Inc. According to Reuters, SKF said that because of copyright issues the Garbo likeness was not made from archival photographs or footage but created with text prompts, while the voice was trained on her voice from one of her early films, the only archival material fed to the AI, for which permission was obtained, with a human actor helping with pacing and cadence.