BYD's Denza faces an IDR 9.5 trillion trademark claim in Indonesia, the UPC and EPO split on one patent, and WIPO publishes an AI training and copyright study

Indonesian company PT Raden Reza Adi has sued BYD, its Indonesian companies and dealers, asking to be confirmed as owner of the Denza trademark and claiming about IDR 9.5 trillion; the next hearing is set for 23 February 2027.

BYD's Denza faces a trademark suit in Indonesia with a claim of about IDR 9.5 trillion; China's Supreme People's Court says misappropriated inventions belong in ownership and inventorship disputes

According to the case system of the Commercial Court at the Central Jakarta District Court, trademark case No. 101/Pdt.Sus-HKI/Merek/2026/PN Niaga Jkt.Pst was registered on 8 September. The plaintiff is the Indonesian company PT Raden Reza Adi; the seven defendants are BYD Company Limited, two BYD companies in Indonesia and four dealers. According to the claims reported by CNN Indonesia and detikOto, the plaintiff asks the court to confirm it as lawful owner of the Denza mark (Indonesian registration IDM001176306, class 12), to find bad-faith infringement, to order joint damages of about IDR 9.5 trillion, and to stop imports and sales of all Denza vehicles and recall those sold. These are the plaintiff's requests; the court has not heard the merits. The first hearing, set for 22 September, was postponed to summon the seven defendants, and the next hearing is set for 23 February 2027.

Indonesian media report that BYD earlier sued another Indonesian company, PT Worcas Nusantara Abadi, and that the Indonesian Supreme Court declared the claim inadmissible because the wrong party had been sued (No. 1338 K/Pdt.Sus-HKI/2025), finding that the mark had been assigned to PT Raden Reza Adi. BYD then sued both companies in June 2026, asking for Denza to be recognised as well known and the registration cancelled. BYD Indonesia says it is confident about its rights and has used the name Danza in local promotion since 1 October.

On 22 October the IP Tribunal of China's Supreme People's Court published its analysis of case (2025) Zui Gao Fa Zhi Xing Zhong No. 794. A Mr Yang argued that three companies had copied his invention to file a utility model and sought invalidation under Article 11 of the Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law; CNIPA declined to examine that ground, which applies only to invalidation requests filed after 20 January 2024, while his request was filed on 20 October 2023. On appeal the court held that the dispute is in substance about patent ownership and inventorship and should be resolved in a separate civil action, while noting that under the Patent Examination Guidelines a panel may raise Article 11 of its own motion where a patent was obtained in clear breach of good faith.

The UPC orders Netflix to stop infringing in 18 countries while an EPO Opposition Division revokes the same DivX patent; the UPC can stop divisionals being used to dodge a validity ruling

DivX's European patent with unitary effect EP4213033 covers a video distribution system for progressive playback. On 15 September the UPC Munich Local Division (UPC_CFI_465/2025, UPC_CFI_1121/2025) dismissed Netflix's invalidity counterclaim, found five Netflix companies liable for indirect infringement of claim 1 and ordered them to stop the acts in 18 UPC member states, including Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden, and to provide information on acts since grant on 7 May 2025. The judgment is enforceable without security, and either side may appeal within two months of service.

Netflix International B.V. opposed the same patent on 9 February 2026. After oral proceedings on 12 and 13 October, the Opposition Division's result notice of 13 October announced revocation under Articles 101(2) and 101(3)(b) EPC, meaning neither the granted nor the amended text can be maintained. This is not yet final: the reasoned written decision has not issued, the register still shows the patent as granted, and an appeal by the patentee would have suspensive effect under Article 106(1) EPC. The UPC judgment can also be appealed, so the opposition result alone does not mean the UPC injunction has fallen away.

On 22 October the Milan seat of the UPC Central Division issued a procedural order in Sandoz v Novo Nordisk (UPC_CFI_2221/2026), concerning unitary patent EP 3 689 365 for once-weekly 1.0 mg semaglutide to treat type 2 diabetes. The court held that if a patentee withdraws a patent during revocation proceedings and pursues substantially the same protection through a divisional, it may, under Rule 360 of the Rules of Procedure, refuse to close the case and still rule on inventive step; it may also order, as a provisional measure, that the patentee not withdraw its approval of the text, but Sandoz must plead specific facts for that request. The court did not find that Novo Nordisk was doing so, and validity remains for the main proceedings.

WIPO's study on AI training and copyright lists five open questions, and the judge in the Anthropic lyrics case asks about fair use for four kinds of use separately

On 23 October WIPO published its Study on AI Training and the Scope of Copyright (SCCR/49/6) as a document for the 49th session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights in Geneva from 30 November to 4 December. Commissioned by the Secretariat, it states that the views are the authors' and not those of member states or the Secretariat; the team is led by Daniel J. Gervais, professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University, with authors from Korea, Kenya, Brazil and China, including Professor Wang Qian of East China University of Political Science and Law. The study describes and compares approaches in China, the US, the EU, the UK, Korea and Brazil, covers only the training of generative AI and makes no recommendations. It ends with five choices for member states: authorisation or exception for copying in training; how to design opt-outs; whether compensation attaches to ingestion or to output substitution; what records and disclosure training needs; and remedies where works cannot be removed from a model, together with jurisdiction when training takes place abroad.

In Concord Music Group v Anthropic (5:24-cv-03811-EKL) in the Northern District of California, the hearing on 21 October lasted 4 hours 43 minutes and Judge Eumi K. Lee did not rule on fair use from the bench. The questions she sent the parties beforehand, made public on 23 October (ECF No. 918), show that she is inclined to analyse four uses separately: use in training, outputs reproducing the lyrics, outputs mixing and rewriting them, and newly generated “synthetic lyrics”. Her questions on the fourth factor focus on the publishers' “market dilution” theory and cite Kadrey v Meta. The court then set a further hearing by video on 30 October for the remaining Daubert motions on whether the parties' expert evidence is admissible; the public docket shows a minute entry for that hearing on 30 October (No. 928), whose text is not public. As of this issue's cut-off, the docket shows no ruling on fair use or on those motions.

New EPO rules on system outages apply from April 2027, Brazil's INPI restores deadlines after an outage, and UK patent renewals need an IP account from 9 November

On 30 October the EPO published a decision of the President (OJ EPO 2026, A50) and an accompanying notice (A51) on the amended Rule 134 EPC, applying to periods expiring on or after 1 April 2027. Where EPO electronic communication is unavailable for reasons on the EPO's side, periods are extended to the first day on which all means are available again; planned maintenance of under four hours on one working day, announced at least two working days ahead, does not count. A party affected by an exceptional event such as a natural disaster, a widespread internet or power outage or a cyber-attack is treated as having acted in time if it acts within five days after the effect ends, with evidence. The rule does not apply to divisional applications under Article 76 EPC and cannot secure an earlier filing date.

A decision of the President of the Boards of Appeal (OJ EPO 2026, A54) applies from 1 November: the Boards may record oral proceedings and use artificial intelligence to transcribe and organise the recording when preparing the minutes. Recordings and transcripts are internal, are not added to the file or given to the parties, and are deleted no later than one month after the minutes are notified; nobody other than EPO staff may record or broadcast the proceedings.

On 29 October Brazil's National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) announced that some electronic services were down and confirmed, under Article 6 of INPI/PR Ordinance No. 049 of 2021, that where the systems are unavailable for more than 60 consecutive minutes, deadlines expiring that day are restored automatically; the INPI unavailability report governs how. It was the third outage notice in October, after 1–2 and 19–20 October.

The UK Intellectual Property Office announced on 27 October that from 9 November patent renewals must be made through an IP account, while trade mark and registered design renewals are unchanged; patents can no longer be renewed in the same transaction as trade marks or designs. The old Web Filing system will not close on 8 November and is expected to be retired in early December.

The US Fifth Circuit vacates Motorola's §1782 discovery order against ASC, finding it sidesteps European procedure

On 29 October the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in Motorola v Advanced Standard Communication (ASC) (No. 26-10747), vacated a discovery order under 28 U.S.C. §1782 that required ASC to produce the unredacted agreement under which it bought patents from ZTE, with annexes, for Motorola's FRAND defence in UPC and German proceedings. ASC acquired the communications patents on 31 December 2022 and in autumn 2025 sued on three of them, one at the UPC and two before the Munich I Regional Court. The UPC had refused Motorola's request for the same agreement in April 2026, expressing strong doubt that a reasonable royalty could be inferred from the purchase price, while leaving open an order at a later stage.

The Fifth Circuit held that a §1782 application is in effect dispositive, so the district court should have reviewed the magistrate judge's ruling de novo rather than for clear error; that it was wrong to require ASC to prove that European courts would not accept the evidence; and that, with the UPC having ruled on the same document and left room for a later order, granting US discovery now was premature and amounted to circumventing European procedure. The court stressed that §1782 does not require the evidence to be discoverable abroad: Motorola can ask the European courts again if they later need the documents, or renew its US application if circumstances change materially.

Madagascar becomes a PCT receiving office from 2 January 2027, Korea lowers PCT search fees in won, and Canada simplifies agent appointment for Hague designs

PCT Newsletter No. 10/2026 reports that Madagascar's industrial property office will act as receiving office for its residents and nationals from 2 January 2027; language and fee requirements are still to be announced. Korea's Ministry of Intellectual Property Notice No. 2026-19 lowers, from 1 November, the won amounts of the search fees where Austria, Japan or Singapore is the searching authority, and of the handling fee; the foreign-currency amounts are unchanged, and applications filed before 1 November but paid later keep the old amounts. From 29 October the Canadian Intellectual Property Office treats correspondence from the representative recorded in a Hague international registration, giving the same name and address, as appointing that representative as agent in Canada, unless an agent is already on file.

The UK issues an anti-counterfeiting guide for the beauty sector, and OAPI launches a regional IP protection guide

On 30 October the UK Intellectual Property Office published guidance on how businesses can avoid counterfeit beauty products: buy from trusted sources, check who the seller is, look beyond price and appearance, inspect products before use or sale, and stop and report suspected fakes to Trading Standards; it creates no new legal obligations. On 26 October, while signing a 2026–2027 work plan with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, the African Intellectual Property Organization launched a guide to protecting IP in the OAPI region, which offers unified protection in 17 member states through one procedure; the full guide is not yet on its website.

CNIPA lists 29 proposed national geographical indication protection demonstration zones

On 27 October CNIPA published for comment, until 2 November, a list of 29 proposed national geographical indication protection demonstration zones in 22 provinces and regions, mostly for tea, wine and spirits, fruit, grain and oil and local foods, plus traditional crafts such as Huanggang willow weaving. The list covers zones that have completed and passed acceptance, and differs from the 2026 list of zones starting a three-year build-up period announced on 22 October.

01Register main brands and sub-brands before going abroad, and check the registered owner before suing

Search and register main brands and sub-brands before entering a market and follow any assignments after pre-emptive filings; check the current registered owner before suing, and gather ownership, prior-use and reputation evidence early.

02Manage UPC litigation and EPO oppositions as one plan

Assess opposition risk and amendments before suing; after being sued, run oppositions alongside invalidity counterclaims; track written decisions, appeal deadlines and stay or enforcement applications separately.

03Check training data licences against WIPO's five questions

Review training use, opt-out, record-keeping and disclosure, and compensation in licences; developers should keep data sources, licence records and output filtering logs, and right holders data on the market for specific works.

04Deadlines and renewals: outage notices at the EPO, INPI reports in Brazil, an IP account in the UK

Note the EPO outage notice number and keep evidence, remembering the new rules apply from 1 April 2027; follow the INPI unavailability report for restored Brazilian deadlines; open a UK IP account and link patents before 9 November.