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In Germany a declaratory action is an established instrument to react to an unwarranted warning letter. But whether it is necessary to send a counter-warning in response to a first warning letter so as to prevent an award of costs pursuant to S 93 ZPO (Code of Civil Procedure) when filing a declaratory action has up to now been a moot point. Different courts have handed down different decisions on this point. The District Court of Cologne confirmed the necessity of a counter-warning letter to prevent an award of costs pursuant to S 93 ZPO. Several Higher Regional Courts, however, denied the basic necessity of sending a counter-warning letter.

During a recent meeting on intellectual property piracy in Geneva, the Motion Picture Association of America and Interpol applauded the government of Malaysia for its stringent measures and its commitment in fighting against pirated intellectual property within the country.

David Highet is chief IP counsel for Becton Dickinson and a trustee of the American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation. He spoke to MIP about patent trolls, changing approaches to patents and the need for diversity in the IP profession

Section 40(3) of the Australian Patents Act 1990 sets out that the claims of a patent specification must be "fairly based on the matter described in the specification". Essentially, this means that the support for the full breadth of the claims must be found in the description. This is one of the most contentious areas of Australian patent law.

On June Law 19/2006 to increase protection for IP rights was published in the Spanish Official Gazette. The Law establishes the rules of proceedings to facilitate the enforcement of different Community regulations. This Law transposes Directive 2004/48/CE regarding IP rights to guarantee a high level of protection, equivalent and homogeneous, in the internal market.

For Singapore patent applications, it has been common practice to make voluntary amendments, in particular to the claims, at any time before payment of the grant fee. The patent applications could proceed to grant even though the amendments were not searched and examined.

Peter Spours and Dan McCurdy explain why treating your patents like currency and researching competitors' portfolios can help you build a successful IP strategy

Jorge A Goldstein and Timothy J Shea, Jr look at how you can avoid inventorship disputes and explain how to resolve them when they occur

When two companies could not agree a price for a trade mark sale, they decided to hold an arbitration followed by a mediation. Those involved explain how this unusual process worked

Well established as an offshore financial centre, the island of Guernsey is now looking to attract IP owners with a series of new laws. James Nurton reports