Seizures and discoveries last week include one in Taiwan where 10,000 items of fake Penguin brand garments were confiscated… In Russia a huge underground network of music pirates has been raided, yielding over 3.5 million pirated CDs… Seizures of counterfeit cigarettes have taken place at a number of locations in the UK, and in Australia… Pirated DVDs, CDs and games were seized in a number of countries including Canada, India and Mexico.

Cases and outcomes last week include Louis Vuitton winning a patent dispute in China concerning a five-star hotel which leased space to a seller of fake Louis Vuitton products. The hotel was ordered to pay 100,000 Yuan to the luxury brand manufacturer… Three men have been arrested for allegedly smuggling fake high blood pressure medicine from China into South Korea… A couple who were distributing fake erectile-dysfunction drugs in the US have avoided jail by helping authorities catch the Chinese dealer… The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has filed another eight lawsuits in US federal court against sellers of pirated software via eBay.

Policy developments last week include the government of Antigua threatening to suspend intellectual property treaties with the US by the end of March and authorising wholesale copying of US movies, music and other “soft targets”… The European Commission has launched a public consultation into the dangers of counterfeit drugs, and recommends action from the EU as a whole, rather than unilateral action by individual member states.