Insights

Saudi Arabia has taken a big step in intellectual-property legislation. According to the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP), on 20 October 2026 the Saudi Cabinet approved four dedicated IP laws: a Patents and Utility Models Law, a New Plant Varieties Law, a Designs Law, and a Layout Designs of Integrated Circuits Law. To be clear up front: this is Cabinet approval, and the announcement gives no entry-into-force date for any of the laws, nor any date for when the related new filing channels will open.

What the four laws cover:

Counterfeit seizures in the EU hit a record in 2025. In a joint report published on 22 October 2026, the EUIPO and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) said more than 196 million counterfeit items, worth an estimated EUR 6.3 billion, were detained at the EU border and in the internal market that year — 67% more than in 2024 and 29% above the previous record set in 2023.

The most frequently detained goods were still 'recorded CDs/DVDs' — covering music and film, TV box sets, retro games and application software — at nearly 30% of all seizures.

Inventors and small companies that already hold a US patent often ask whether they also need one in China, especially when their products are made there. The short answer: a US patent has no effect in China. Whether a Chinese patent is worth it depends on where your products are made and sold, how easily they can be copied, and whether you can still file at all. This guide explains the rules on territory, deadlines and the different types of Chinese patent. It is general information; China's Patent Law and the facts of each case decide the outcome.

Is it 'fair use' to train AI on copyrighted works? In one concrete case, that fight is narrowing to the point that matters most. On 21 October 2026, at a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Concord Music Group v. Anthropic, No. 5:24-cv-03811), Anthropic asked the court to find that training its model Claude on large amounts of song lyrics is fair use under US copyright law. Judge Eumi K. Lee did not rule that day.

Mexico is putting the fight against online counterfeits onto e-commerce platforms' own rulebooks. On 21 October 2026, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), part of the Secretariat of Economy, together with the industry confederation CONCAMIN, held a session whose centrepiece was the signing of a 'Declaration of Principles of Digital Platforms in favour of Intellectual Property'. To be clear up front: this is a government-platform cooperation framework, a voluntary declaration of principles — not a new mandatory regulation.

The Taiwan region may be in for a significant overhaul of its design patent rules — but for now it is only a draft. On 22 October 2026, the Executive Yuan approved a draft amendment to parts of the Patent Act, centred on design patents: broader subject matter, simpler filing and a longer grace period. Note the status — it is a draft that still needs to pass the legislature before taking effect, so you cannot yet arrange disclosures and filings around the new rules.