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This year's changes to prior art disclosure requirements in Australia ease the burden on patent applicants. But, warns Mark Roberts, applicants still need to examine carefully what and how much they submit

According with the Mexican Industrial Property Law (IPL), a single colour may not constitute a trade mark, thus resulting in an absolute ground for refusal. Indeed, section V of article 90 establishes that the following are not allowed to be registered as trade marks: "letters, digits or isolated colours, unless they are combined or enclosed with other elements such as signs, designs or words which provide them with a distinctive character".

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.

A subsidiary of San Miguel, the Philippines food, drinks and packaging company, has temporarily stopped one of its rivals producing a brand of gin which it claims infringes one of its trade marks.

Ingrid Hering, London

James Nurton, London

The EU could accede to the Madrid Protocol within a year, if the Council of Ministers adopts a proposal made last month.

Ralph Cunningham, Hong Kong

The last few years have seen an earnest push by the Singapore government to develop the biotechnology sector in this island city-state. Indeed, biotechnology was to be the fourth pillar of the country's economy. The Straits Times recently reported that the government is spending US$1.7 billion over a period of five years to attract foreign biotech and pharmaceutical companies to Singapore.

Elizabeth Stotland Weiswasser examines the status of the statutory safe harbor exemption from pharmaceutical companies in the US, in light of the Federal Circuit's comments in the recent Integra case