Cover Story

• IP under threat from competition clampdown

  

  From pharmaceuticals to telecoms, software and even copyright licensing, antitrust authorities are clamping down on abuses of IP rights. James Nurton, Eileen McDermott and Peter Ollier examine why IP is under scrutiny and discuss some pending cases and investigations

Features

• Copyright survey results

  Top copyright firms ranked in 19 jurisdictions. Plus: Eileen McDermott explores some areas in which the internet has highlighted a need for change in copyright law

• A practical guide to the patent prosecution highway

  

  Fasten your seatbelts. John M Carson, Alan Kessler and Hugh Dunlop explain how the PPH works in practice, and ask which applicants will most benefit from it

• Securitise your IP rights in Asia

  Businesses should not abandon IP securitisation because of the credit crisis. Instead, argues Stanley Lai, this financing method could make a comeback in Asia

• How to handle IP assets in an insolvency

  IP assets are often overlooked in insolvency situations. But Eifion Morris and Lucy Harrold say insolvency practitioners, lenders and business partners should all pay more attention

• Roundtable: the Latin American patent challenge

  Patent protection and enforcement can be a complex undertaking in Latin America. Corporate and private practice professionals, and a WIPO representative, discuss strategies

• Fix your broken IP structures

  

  Is IP given its due importance in your company? If not, say Andrew Watson and Jordan Hatcher, maybe it's time to stop being a blue personality, and become red or yellow

• What non-US companies should know about the ITC

  Barry J Herman and Eric W Schweibenz advise non-US companies on how they can meet the domestic industry requirement at the US ITC

• Letter from the editor

• Deferred examination - a solution whose time has come

  Letter to the editor, from Steven Bennett and David Kappos, IBM

News Analysis

• Damages divide in focus as US reform is re-launched

  Patent reform is back on the agenda in Congress. But, says Eileen McDermott in New York, industry remains divided - especially over how to calculate damages

• Offices barricaded in counterfeit crackdown

  

  A counterfeit crackdown has prompted violent protests in Beijing. Janice Qu reports

• Reports reveal scale of cybersquatting threat

  Online drugs sales and the economic downturn are feeding a cybersquatting boom, according to recent reports. James Nurton and Eileen McDermott report

• Lundbeck patent decision welcomed

  

  Practitioners have welcomed a UK House of Lords decision to uphold Lundbeck's patent for escitalopram

• CAFC ruling stuns patent community

  The Federal Circuit last month reversed a lower court ruling that said the USPTO did not have authority to promulgate rules on claims and continuations

• Americas

IP Clinic

• Should we embrace viral marketing?

  My company is about to launch an advertising campaign, and we think it could become very popular. Should we welcome this and are there are any particular trade mark/branding concerns we should be aware of?

Diary

• Utynam's Heirs

  A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam - who received the world’s first recorded patent in 1449

Country Updates

• Africa - The shape of things to come in South Africa

• Argentina - Unfair competition law

• Australia - Court reviews fair basis

• Austria - Keyword advertising in the spotlight

• Canada - Proposed changes to patent rules

• China (PRC) - How to renew opposed trade marks

• IP laws amended

• Germany - Basic RNAi patent revoked

• Greece - Launch of generics not legitimised by MA grant if patent is infringed

• India - Patent used to block drugs shipment

• Italy - PTO becomes more efficient

• Japan - IP Court overturns copyright injunction

• Malaysia - Court overturns trade mark injunction

• Mexico - Venues for appealing IMPI decisions

• Netherlands - Supreme Court delivers patent rulings

• New Zealand - ISP liability debate continues

• Philippines - Hoarding is not unfair competition

• Poland - Profession name not registrable as a trade mark

• Russia - Parallel again

• Singapore - Beware of hidden patent amendment limitations

• South Korea - Patent Act revised

• Taiwan - Draft of revised Patent Act released

• Thailand - Court rules on associated trade marks

• Do uploaded contents invade privacy?

• United Kingdom - First award for inventors in patent compensation case

• Trade mark disclaimers

• Vietnam - IP law amendments planned