Expert Analysis

Businesses in the UK are faced with a new set of rules governing how they can use data in marketing and e-commerce. Simon Stokes and Ayesha Bramwell explain how new privacy regulations impact on the use and abuse of spam

Since the 1990s, the Indian government's research branch has protected its most important advances with patents. Now the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research is moving on to exploiting those inventions through licensing. RA Mashelkar, CSIR’s director-general, spoke to Ralph Cunningham about the council's IP management strategy

Claims such as "the number one" and "the best" are among those frequently made by advertisers for their products and services. Timothy Pinto examines what such claims mean and whether or not they are legal

Users of the patent system want change, but politically there are still tensions between Europe and the US, and between the positions of developed and developing countries, argues Ivan B Ahlert

Changes to Japan's patent law in the early months of 2004 will see lower fees in some cases and the abolition of the opposition system. The amendments to the invalidation appeal procedures are open to abuse and could end up harming patentees' rights, warn John Tessensohn and Shusaku Yamamoto

India's new Trade Marks Act provides protection of an international standard. Confusion exists, however, about the constitution of the new appellate board system to deal with the appeals of trade mark registry decisions, explains Ranjan Narula