On 1 October 2026, China set out procedures for protecting integrated-circuit layout designs, Australia ended card-payment surcharges across the major card networks, and a United States federal court halted agency policies implementing the US$100,000 H-1B visa fee. The three developments change, respectively, the procedures for registering and contesting intellectual-property rights, the pricing of consumer payments, and the conditions governing cross-border access to specialised labour.
China
China’s National Intellectual Property Administration issued revised Implementing Rules for the Regulations on the Protection of Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits on 30 September, with effect from 30 October. The seven-chapter, 56-article instrument supports the revised regulations with procedures covering registration applications, examination, review and cancellation, the exercise of exclusive rights, fees and dispute handling. Electronic form is expressly treated as written form, allowing documents to be lodged and served electronically. Applicants must provide the required reproduction or drawing of the layout design, while a declaration of originality must identify the parts claimed as original, including regions capable of functioning independently.
The revised rules provide that an exclusive layout-design right takes effect upon registration and add procedures for registering transfers, licences, pledges and other changes in ownership. Members of the public may request access to the register. CNIPA will handle review and cancellation proceedings, which may include oral hearings. It may also determine infringement disputes and mediate the amount of compensation; the scope of an infringement determination is based on the original parts asserted by the right holder.
CNIPA issued transition measures on the same day. The revised regulations commence on 15 October. As a general rule, applications lodged on or after that date will be governed by the revised regulations, while earlier applications remain subject to the previous regulations. From 15 October, however, the new requirements identified in the transition measures apply to matters including representation of foreign applicants, application documents, cancellation requests, restoration of rights and extensions of time, registration of transfers, licences and pledges, public inspection of the register and review procedures.
Australia
Australia changed the pricing rules for card payments from 1 October. The Reserve Bank of Australia removed its earlier prohibition on “no-surcharge” rules in the designated eftpos, Mastercard and Visa systems. Those networks then introduced rules preventing merchants from adding a surcharge to credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. American Express and UnionPay also prohibited surcharges from 1 October, while PayPal’s change takes effect on 5 October.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says businesses can no longer add a payment surcharge when a customer uses a Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos card. The restriction concerns fees tied to the payment method; it does not prohibit weekend, public-holiday, service or booking fees, although those charges remain subject to price-display rules and the Australian Consumer Law. Businesses still incur card-acceptance costs and may incorporate those costs into their general advertised prices.
The RBA also reduced interchange-fee caps on domestic card transactions and introduced transparency requirements for payment service providers. Reuters reported government estimates that consumers would avoid about A$1.6 billion in annual surcharges and businesses would save about A$910 million in payment costs. Some hospitality businesses had raised listed prices or said they would incorporate the costs into prices. The RBA estimated an aggregate one-off effect of about 0.1 percentage points on measured inflation.
United States
On 30 September, the US District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction in Global Nurse Force and others v Trump administration officials. It vacated and restrained federal agencies from enforcing policies created to implement a presidential proclamation requiring a US$100,000 fee for certain new H-1B petitions involving specialist workers outside the United States. The measure has been extended to 21 September 2027. The court order said existing statutory and regulatory petition fees total about US$7,595 at the high end.
The court did not decide whether the policy was desirable; it examined the process used by the implementing agencies. It found the plaintiffs were likely to show that the agencies had not used the notice-and-comment process required by the Administrative Procedure Act or completed the relevant regulatory-flexibility analyses. At this stage, the government’s claimed good-cause and foreign-affairs exceptions were insufficient to excuse those steps. The injunction requires the agencies to stop enforcing their implementation policies until the applicable rulemaking procedures are completed. The court also denied the government’s motion to dismiss, while declining the plaintiffs’ request for class certification.
The order recorded immediate recruitment effects alleged by a small manufacturer, a rural nephrology practice, schools and a nurse-staffing organisation, including an inability to absorb the new fee and difficulty filling vacancies. The ruling is preliminary relief, not a final judgment. Reuters reported that this was the second federal judge to block implementation of the fee; other federal courts have reached differing decisions about the proclamation and agency policies, while the Department of Homeland Security separately proposed in August to place a similar fee in a permanent rule.
Editorial framework: This briefing uses Sustenesis as an editorial framework for selecting facts, organising relationships and structuring information, with attention to differences and constraints in rules, responsibilities, resources, risks and social relations. Sustenesis functions here as a method of organisation rather than a position or commentary; the body remains limited to verifiable facts.
Sources
China National Intellectual Property Administration: CNIPA Order No. 86
https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2026/9/30/art_74_208390.html
China National Intellectual Property Administration: Explanation of the amendments to the Implementing Rules for the Regulations on the Protection of Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits
https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2026/9/30/art_66_208389.html
China National Intellectual Property Administration: Announcement on transitional matters concerning the revised Regulations on the Protection of Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits
https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2026/9/30/art_74_208391.html
Reserve Bank of Australia: Review of Retail Payments Regulation — Frequently Asked Questions
https://www.rba.gov.au/payments-and-infrastructure/review-of-retail-payments-regulation/2026-03/conclusions-paper/faqs/
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission: Payment methods
https://www.accc.gov.au/business/selling-products-and-services/payment-methods
Reuters: Australian businesses raise prices as card surcharge ban takes effect
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australian-businesses-raise-prices-card-surcharge-ban-takes-effect-2026-10-01/
United States District Court, Northern District of California: Order in Global Nurse Force et al. v. Trump et al., No. 4:25-cv-08454-HSG
https://aboutblaw.com/bmZW
Reuters: Second judge blocks Trump's $100,000 fee for new H-1B worker visas
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/second-judge-blocks-trumps-100000-fee-new-h-1b-worker-visas-2026-10-01/
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