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The ECJ's case law on three-dimensional shape marks in recent years has had its effects on German jurisprudence. Aloys Hüttermann of Maiwald explains why applicants need to be extra careful when registering their shape marks in the future

The existence of two official languages in Canada has affected trade mark registration procedures in the country. Joanne Nardi of Torys explains how language issues set Canada's trade mark law apart from those of the rest of the world

A brand's identity is comprised of more than just its name or logo, and includes all the associations that consumers attach to the brand. Studies demonstrate that consumer knowledge of a brand's identity will influence how they evaluate extensions of that brand into different product categories. By Andrew Lockhart and Eugene Ford of Shelston IP

Clearing a new trade mark in the expanded EU can be a tiresome and costly task for in-house trade mark counsel. Daan Teeuwissen and Ellen Gevers of Knijff have found one solution which they say will make brand owners' lives easier

On January 1 2005, Anne Gundelfinger, associate general counsel of Intel, took over as the new president of INTA. She spoke to Stéphanie Bodoni about her priorities for the next year, the challenges facing brand owners, and what changes are looming in the trade mark world

Belgium:The European Parliament on February 23 approved the proposal for a new regulation to amend Customs control procedures and boost security at the EU's borders, first put forward by the European Commission in July 2003. The proposed regulation will introduce the possibility for Customs offices to exchange information electronically on goods movements, as well as a Community-wide computerized system for risk management. The Netherlands: Piracy investigators discovered more than 140,000 fake CDs and DVDs during raids on 13 shops in Rotterdam in March. More than 100 Dutch fiscal police officers uncovered the fakes, with most them believed to have been smuggled into the Netherlands from Pakistan. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN and the British Phonographic Industry were also involved in the raids. UK: Thirty-one individuals face letters from the UK music industry warning them against their file-sharing activities following an order by the High Court on March 11, forcing six UK internet service providers to release the names and addresses of the suspects. The order followed settlements agreed by the British Phonographic Industry a week earlier in 23 out of 26 cases that it had launched in October 2004, amounting to a total of £50,000 ($95,000) paid by the infringers to avoid court proceedings. UK: A bitter dispute over the colour orange is heading for the courts, after easyGroup and Orange (owned by France Telecom) ended attempts to settle their differences at the end of February. easyGroup announced last summer that it would enter the European mobile phone market in association with Danish company TDC mobile, planning to use the name easyMobile and the familiar easyGroup shade of orange. But rival mobile phone operator Orange is already established in the UK market and relies heavily on the name and colour orange in its marketing.

Australia:The government said that it was considering adopting a US-style fair use defence to copying that would allow consumers to copy films and music without the risk of breaking the law. At the moment, anyone who copies a CD to their Apple iPod or a cassette is technically infringing the Copyright Act. Australia:The head of the business lobby group Australian Industry Group urged the government to set up an IP monitoring and dispute panel before it starts any negotiations with China over a free trade agreement. India: A Delhi High Court judge ruled that a famous sculptor has complete rights over a work he created for a state building. The Judge ruled that Amar Nath Seghal had an actionable right under the Copyright Act, even though the government owned the mural's copyright. The court ordered the government to return the artwork to the sculptor and pay him Rs500,000 ($11,400) in compensation. The judge also ruled that the government no longer had any rights over the work. Japan:Judge Katsumi Shinohara of the Tokyo High Court's IP Department is to become the first president of Japan's IP High Court. The court will start work on April 1, and will have jurisdiction over all IP cases brought before the Tokyo High Court.

Sam Mamudi, New York

US: The Senate passed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, a law which criminalizes the recording of films in movie theatres and the posting of unreleased films and music on the internet. A similar bill failed to pass last year after a dispute concerning an unrelated bill. US: Microsoft won the latest round in its battle against a $521 million patent infringement award, after the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit largely overturned a ruling of the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The Federal Circuit's decision, challenged the lower court's finding that a patent owned by the University of California, and licensed exclusively to Eolas, was valid and infringed by Microsoft. The case was remanded back to the district court for further argument. US: USPTO director Jon Dudas said that the agency was launching a series of reforms that will speed up patent prosecution and save applicants about $30 million a year. The reforms have three key features: firstly, applicants can now request an appeal conference to determine the merits of their appeal against a patent rejection before having to file a Notice of Appeal and an appeal brief; secondly, changes to the reexamination procedure will see three-person examiner panels replace a single panellist; and Dudas promised that there would be more detail in published USPTO data. US: The University of California led all US academic institutions in receiving the most patents from the USPTO in 2004. This was the 11th consecutive year that the University of California has topped the patent rankings (see below). Top patenting US universities (2004) Rank Number of patents University (Rank 2003) Number of

Harry Potter: available from Rmb22 ($2.65) US movie studio Warner Bros is to cut DVD prices and bring forward release dates in an attempt to cut piracy levels in China.