We would like to inform all our clients that our branch office in Macau has moved to a new location:

20/F, AIA Tower, 251-301,
Av. Comercial de Macau
Macau S.A.R.

However, our postal address remains the same:
P.O. Box 8061
Mong Ha Post Office
Macau S.A.R.

Please update your records accordingly for future correspondence.
For any further information please contact us: macau@inventa-international.com.

Fundação para a Computação Científica Nacional - FCCN, the Portuguese Registrar of Domain Names under .PT, has announced the liberalization of domain names registered under the Portuguese country code top-level domain after May 1, 2012.

This means that dot .PT will be the newest European ccTLD to open up its keyword availability to everyone.

So far, .PT domain names are required to match with a company name or a registered word mark in force in Portugal (national, CTM or IR designating Portugal), but from May 1, this requirement will be abolished and the registration of .PT domain names will be eligible for any entity, national or foreign.

A two-month sunrise period is now open until that date, allowing trademark owners and company name owners to register their trademarks and company names as domain names.

For more information and for domain name registration, please contact our Domain Names department.

The European Patent Office (EPO), has revealed its most recent statistics regarding new patent applications filed in 2011: about 243 000 European Patent Applications were filed last year. This is a new record, and a 3% increase comparing to the filings in 2010.

62% of the applications came from non-European countries and the biggest contributor to this increase was China with over 16.000 EP applications (about 4.400 more than in 2010).

USA, Japan and Germany remain the top countries with 59.000, 47.000 and 33.000 EP applications filed in 2011, respectively.

To view the full report, click here.

WIPO has launched its latest World Intellectual Property Report 2011, which subject is "The Changing Face of Innovation".

Among other issues, it describes key trends in the innovation landscape - including the increasingly open, international and collaborative character of the innovation process; the causes of the increased demand for IP rights; and the rising importance of technology markets.

Against this background, the Report explores the ways in which economists' views of the IP system have evolved. Finally, it takes a closer look at collaborative innovation models, analyzing how best to balance private collaboration and competition, and how best to harness public research for innovation.

Read the full report here.