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The Czech Republic has modified its IP laws to harmonize with the European Union. Karel Cermak, of Cermak Horejs Myslil in Prague explains the changes

France: Lovells will merge with French firm Siméon & Associés, effective November 1. The combined Paris office will have 25 partners and more than 80 other attorneys.

One of the most fundamental biotechnology inventions is due to be tested in a Massachusetts district court, after Applied Molecular Evolution (AME) filed a patent infringement suit against Morphosys on June 26. AME owns a licence to six patents filed by Stuart Kauffman covering directed evolution technology. The patents have been described by Nature Biotechnology magazine as being as important as those filed by Cohen and Boyer in the first generation of biotechnology.

Name partner Aurelio Perani and his two sons have left Italian firm Jacobacci & Perani and established another practice following divisions within the firm's management. Aurelio Perani was a partner in the trade mark and patent agency Jacobacci & Perani's Milan office. His son Paolo was a partner in Studio Legale Jacobacci e Perani, where younger brother Andreo was an associate.

The copyright landscape for publishers has been redrawn by a landmark US Supreme Court decision in June that found the inclusion without permission of previously published articles in an electronic database constituted copyright infringement.

The Festo decision is arguably one of the most controversial to fall on the US patent landscape in recent times. It is deeply divisive, generating as much ardent opposition as it does adamant support. Patent lawyers, unsure of the way forward, now look in hope to the Supreme Court for guidance on this most vexed of issues.

Jeff Neuman is director of policy and intellectual property for Neulevel, which has the licence to run the new .biz top-level domain. He was formerly an attorney with Greenberg Traurig’s technology department, and also worked on ICANN’s working groups to develop the UDRP. James Nurton and Ralph Cunningham spoke to him during the INTA Conference in San Francisco in May.

Copyright and contractual issues pose serious challenges to internet companies and their suppliers. David Sternbach of A&E Television Networks Interactive identifies three problems that recur, and suggests practical solutions to them

When, in 1993, Czechoslovakia separated into two independent states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, both republics incorporated Czechoslovak valid law into their legislation. As far as IP rights are concerned, the most important act was the Patents Act No 527/90. In the following years both republics were working on their own legislation and individual Trade Marks Acts were adopted. However, the work continued. International cooperation required substantial harmonization with legislation of the European Union and as far as patent law was concerned; the work was focused on substantial harmonisation with EPC.

As many technology-rich companies face economic problems, they are looking to their intellectual property to raise money. Zack Clement, Johnathan Bolton and Carmen R Eggleston analyze the role of IP rights and licences in financial restructuring