The USPTO was defeated in court over its patent policies; the highest courts in the UK, US and Canada gave key decisions on patentability; eBay was at the heart of disputes in the US and France over its liability for sales of counterfeit goods; EU member states agreed to cut CTM fees but disagreed over a Community patent; ICANN gave the go-ahead to new generic top-level domains; Coca-Cola won a trade mark for its bottle shape in Japan; and WIPO member states elected a new director general.
Those are just a few of the highlights in a busy year in IP. For our annual review of the events that made the news, we present the 50 stories that you, the readers, looked at the most in the past year. The list is based on the number of views for each story, and the top 50 is presented in reverse order.
In addition, we provide some links to related stories and remind you of the winners of MIP's surveys and awards in the past year, and who featured in the list of most influential people in IP.
Click on the titles for access to the full stories.
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50 most popular stories on managingip.com in 2008
September 22: WIPO's 36th General Assembly got off to a smooth start today as Francis Gurry was formally appointed as the Organisation's new director-general
See also: Francis Gurry profiled; WIPO candidates interviewed
October 20: Italian luxury goods maker Salvatore Ferragamo has won a key judgment from Korea's Supreme Court, in the latest in a series of rulings in favour of trade mark owners
November 10: The Supreme Court has clarified the tests for anticipation and obviousness and reaffirmed the patentability of selection patents in a ruling that could be a boon for Canadian pharmaceutical companies, as well as patentees in generals
June 30: The Korea Patent Office is to amend its patent system to create three different application speeds: fast track, normal and more flexible deferred examination
September 22: EU member states have agreed a deal that should see the cost of protecting Community trade marks fall from €1750 to about €1000
See also: Green light for fee reduction; How the deal was done; ECTA President Simon Reeves interviewed
June 30: Trade mark owners have scored a victory over cybersquatters, after two changes were agreed last week to tackle domain name tasting
October 24: EPO President Alison Brimelow has asked the Enlarged Board of Appeal to address four questions about the patentability of computer programs in Europe
June 6: Hewlett-Packard has been ordered by a jury in the Northern District of New York to pay $184 million to Cornell University for patent infringement
May 12: Senate bill S1145, known as the Patent Reform Act, has been officially removed from the Senate schedule and is unlikely to be debated this congressional session
See also: John Duffy predicts patent changes
July 7: A New York federal court judge has denied Viacom's and other plaintiffs' motions requesting that YouTube and Google produce key source code related to the websites' search function in the copyright case against the two internet sites
April 2: In a decision yesterday, a US court granted GlaxoSmithKline's and inventor Triantafyllos Tafas' motion for summary judgment in the closely watched legal battle over the USPTO's proposed patent rules affecting claims and continuing applications
July 28: The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai's patent for heartburn and acid reflux drug Aciphex, a ruling which suggests that chemical compound patents are standing up to obviousness claims post- KSR v Teleflex
See also: Time to reconsider the PHOSITA
May 1: A new Global IP Index rates the UK, US and Germany as the top three major jurisdictions in the world for IP protection, while China is ranked bottom
April 7: US secretary of commerce Carlos Gutierrez sent a letter to Senator Patrick Leahy, sponsor of patent reform bill S1145, re-emphasising the administration's position on patent reform last week
September 15: Problems with patent pendency worldwide are now so serious that "we've moved to the end of the era when 'oh dear' is an adequate response," said EPO head Alison Brimelow last week
See also: Brimelow interviewed in AIPPI Congress News
August 18: Violation of an open source licence can be considered copyright infringement, according to a ruling last week by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC)
October 8: The Court of Appeal in London today confirmed that software can be patented if it provides a technical contribution to the state of the art
See also: UKIPO software notice criticised
November 3: The world's five largest patent offices have revealed a plan to cut patent pendency by increasing work sharing
June 4: A court in Japan has recognised Coca-Cola's contour bottle as distinctive in a decision that could force the Japan Patent Office (JPO) to relax its guidelines for registering 3D trade marks
See also: 10 trade mark cases to watch
November 17: USPTO commissioner for patents John Doll and deputy commissioner for patents Margaret (Peggy) Focarino will take over the roles of deputy director and commissioner for patents, respectively, during the transition period between presidential administrations
June 9: Brand owners are likely to be more willing to challenge eBay over the sale of counterfeit goods after a recent ruling by a French court
See also: eBay under siege; 10 trade mark cases to watch
August 1: Increased patent filing in China, South Korea and the US is putting pressure on patent offices and leading to larger backlogs, according to the latest WIPO Patent Report
June 16: Former USPTO solicitor John Whealan has defended the USPTO's proposed rules on claims and continuations and gave the Office credit for "tak[ing] on a hard issue"
October 10: The USTR has won two parts of its IP case against China at the WTO, but is said to have lost on a key point dealing with criminal enforcement of trade mark infringement
September 22: In a ruling today, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit threw out the established test for design infringement in the US, the so-called point of novelty test
See also: New test for design patents
August 11: The USPTO is to remove the retroactive effect of certain provisions of its divisive rules package relating to patent claims and continuing applications, which was permanently enjoined by a US district court in April
See also: What now for continuations rules?
June 20: This week's settlement of the Lipitor patent litigation suggests that branded and generic drugs companies are more willing to compromise on IP rights, according to lawyers spoken to by Managing IP
See also: What's behind the pharma deals; New pharma IP strategies
July 21: A US court has said that eBay cannot be held liable by jewellery store Tiffany & Co for direct or contributory trade mark infringement, a ruling which contradicts a French court's recent holding in a similar dispute
October 10: USPTO Commissioner for Patents John Doll has urged patent applicants to request interviews with examiners to resolve prosecution problems
August 27: The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has denied Jan Voda's appeal requesting a permanent injunction against medical device company Cordis Corporation
March 3: Communications company Qualcomm has lost a claim at the High Court in London that two of its patents were infringed by rival Nokia
See also: Broadcom v Qualcomm
May 1: China is offering a free online machine translation service for patent searchers
See also: Automatic translations are the future
September 29: Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona last week introduced new patent reform legislation that is substantially different from the hotly debated Patent Reform Act of 2008 introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy last year
November 27: The European Court of Justice has raised the bar for famous brand owners wishing to prove dilution in Europe in a ruling today
See also: How to prove dilution after Intel
June 26: The existence of conflicting IP rights will be one of four criteria that can be used to challenge applications for new generic top-level domains, under plans agreed by ICANN this week
Listen to: web seminar on new TLDs
October 6: Parts of a statutory law on trade secrets proposed in a draft bill by an Indian ministry have been described as "absolutely absurd" by an IP lawyer
See also: India's IP revolution
April 23: Proposals for a European Community patent could be agreed by the end of this year, if member states approve the latest plans on translation requirements being drafted by EU officials
See also: Practitioners back Community patent; Roland Grossenbacher interview; Benoît Battistelli interview
September 8: China's National People's Congress has published proposed amendments to the country's patent law on its website and is asking for comments
July 5: Countries could opt-in to a proposed European patent litigation agreement in the same way as they opt-in to the EU's single currency, the euro, under plans being discussed in Brussels
See also: EU judges keep faith
August 4: The Senate has passed a bill which would amend US patent and trade mark law to require that USPTO administrative judges be appointed by the secretary of commerce
November 17: The Japan Patent Office has granted a patent to a university just 17 days after the examination request was made
December 28 2007: The UK High Court has made its first declaration of non-essentiality in a patent dispute between two telecoms companies
See also: Judge dies; Telecoms battles explained
June 13: China's State Council on Tuesday approved a long-awaited National IP Strategy that commits the government to consider developing specialised IP courts
See also: Tian Lipu on the IP Strategy; Politics and IP in China
May 6: The deputy director of the USPTO has appealed to in-house IP counsel and private practitioners to provide more and better information about their inventions up front
August 1: A leading UK judge has clarified the position of the UK courts on the scope of biotech patents and in particular gene sequence patents in a dispute between Eli Lilly and Human Genome Sciences
August 8: While China is set to impress an audience of 4 billion today with its opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympic Games, the work needed to protect the sponsors from ambush marketing is only just beginning
March 17: The USPTO and the EPO are to launch a project similar to a patent prosecution highway in an effort to speed up the processing of applications at the two IP offices
July 11: Patent practitioners have welcomed the House of Lords ruling in Conor v Angiotech , which clarifies the test for obviousness, saying it brings UK practice closer to that in continental Europe and should lead to more patents being upheld
See also: Obviousness worldwide
October 30: In its eagerly awaited decision in In re Bilski , the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last month reaffirmed its finding in State Street that business methods are patentable in the same way as any other process or method, but rejected the "useful, concrete, tangible" test set forth in previous opinions
See also: web seminar on Bilski; Bilski's cross-industry impact
June 9: The Supreme Court today issued its much-anticipated decision in Quanta Computer v LG Electronics , finding in favour of Quanta and clarifying US law on the doctrine of patent exhaustion, which the Court had not considered since 1942
See also: How Quanta will change licensing; Quanta and LG settle
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April 4: Finnegan Henderson was named US IP firm of the year at last night's first Managing IP North America Awards ceremony, while John Desmarais of Kirkland & Ellis was named IP practitioner of the year
April 10: Law firms Bird & Bird and Baker & McKenzie both scooped three awards at last night's Managing IP Global Awards ceremony
February 4: Finnegan Henderson and Fish & Richardson are the big winners in this year's Managing IP survey of the leading patent firms in the US
March 10: The leading firms in trade mark work in more than 60 jurisdictions are ranked in the second part of Managing IP 's annual IP survey
July 21: Managing IP 's list of the 50 most influential people in IP this year is dominated by figures involved in IP reform and policy discussions
Reviews of previous years
2007 has been an eventful year for IP practitioners. In our annual review of the past 12 months, Managing IP provides an A-Z guide to some of the most important developments worldwide
After 2005 ended in frustration with the failure of the WTO talks, attention focused on national and regional reforms in 2006
High-profile patent litigation, unusual trade marks and the fight against online piracy made 2005 a landmark year for IP owners and practitioners
2004 was a year of high-profile IP cases, half-hearted attempts at reform and a new IP strategy for Microsoft
The past 12 months have seen fundamental changes in the intellectual property world, with the promise of more to come
It was a year that generated more heat than light for IP practitioners. There were so-called landmark cases, much discussion about reform and harmonisation, and some soul-searching about the internet
