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Applicants not familiar with all the particularities of the European patent system are often surprised by the repeated requests of their European representatives to indicate support for the wording of every new or amended claim to be submitted to the European Patent Office (EPO). At the same time, strong feelings often overwhelm European patent attorneys when, during examination, they receive a pile of brand new claims from overseas colleagues with the cheerful remark that the claims have already been issued by their national patent office in a parallel application, together with instructions to file those claims at the EPO. This mutual "misunderstanding" has its roots in the provisions of the notorious Article 123 of the European Patent Convention (EPC), whose second paragraph requires that the subject matter is supported by the content of the original application, whereas the third paragraph prohibits the scope of protection of an issued patent being extended during opposition proceedings.

Valery Medvedev explains how recent amendments to Russia's trade mark law will benefit rights owners and, opposite, examines the implications of the new Patent Law

Digital piracy has long been a headline issue for the IP community, but only recently has it been thrust upon the public. Ingrid Hering reports

Two trade mark registrations belonging to a renowned designer goods company were recently revoked in the Singapore High Court.

EU: The European Commission's new draft block exemption for technology transfer aims to change the competition rules applicable to the licensing of patents, know how and software copyright by reducing the regulatory burden for companies, giving them more freedom to respond to commercial needs, and to improve the TTBE's clarity and scope. Spain: The country's recent accession to the Geneva Act (1999) of the Hague Agreement concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs means it has reached the required number of accessions to enter into force on December 23 this year. Spain is the 11th contracting state following Estonia, Georgia, Iceland, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine. Sweden: Domain name owners will be able to register their domains in the Swedish language including all its accents, dots and rings. Registrar NIC-SE, which manages the Swedish top-level domain .se, introduced the plans to allow users to apply for domain names including the signs å, ä, ö, ü and é in addition to the standard alphabetical and numerical signs. UK: Copyright laws moved closer towards a US-type regime when the new Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003, which implement the EU Copyright Directive, entered into force at the end of October. UK: The Patent Office has published a guide on its website aimed at informing designers about what to look out for when preparing their application for a design registration in the UK.

Ralph Cunningham, Hong Kong

Ralph Cunningham, Hong Kong

A rather progressive provision regulating the protection and exercise of trade mark rights has been established with respect to well-known marks. The Ukrainian Trade Mark Law has been supplemented by Article 25 named "Protection of Rights in Well-Known Marks". Article 25 of the law refers to Article 6bis of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. It establishes that it is possible to take a decision of the Chamber of Appeal of the State Department of Intellectual Property of Ukraine or a court decision as the basis for acknowledging a mark to be well-known. Thus, the Trade Mark Law finally details a list of bodies whose competence covers acknowledging a mark to be well-known. In addition, Item 2 of Article 25 establishes factors that might be taken into consideration when acknowledging a mark to be well-known.

For the very first time, a Spanish court has entered a decision ordering the provisional shutdown of the website for using the so-called people-to-people (P2P) file-exchange network.

The full, unedited, interview with Marshall Phelps, covering his role at IBM, software patenting and many other topics.