Search results for

The European Commission has taken a big step towards the implementation of the European Community Patent. On July 5, following discussions at the Lisbon and Fiera summits, internal market commissioner Frits Bolkestein announced that the single EU patent should be available by the end of next year.

The Andean Court of Justice has just passed an important decision concerning the implementation of Decision 344. Jose Barreda explains that the decision will lead to greater conformity between the member states

Franchising has a big role to play in internet business. As the e-conomy takes off, Mark Abell and Andrew Scott argue that traditional views of market exclusivity in Europe must be changed

Tomorrow's biggest industries will all be driven by technology. Robert Stoll, of the USPTO, takes a timely look at the significance of patent law as an engine of economic development and improvements in human life

Tacking allows you to secure priority for your US trade marks by citing earlier registrations. But Thomas M Williams warns that recent cases have limited trade mark owners' ability to tack old marks on to new ones

Related Information

The legal status of information available on the internet has been cast into doubt again, with the latest copyright case brought by a UK estate agent.

Related Information

Xerox has lost its three-year battle with 3Com over patent infringement of its "Unistroke" software on the basis that there was "no genuine issue to any material fact". The decision on June 8, in Rochester, New York, by US district judge Michael A Telesca, destroys Xerox's hopes of receiving royalties on each Palm handheld organiser sold.

According to German case law, patents directed to the use of a substance or a device for a certain purpose may confer protection which goes beyond the actual application of the method of use. If the product involved shows an "obvious orientation" or "apparent adaptation" towards the protected use, a use claim protects a patentee essentially in the same manner as a product claim directed to that product. This adaptation of the product includes acts as formulation, ready-for-use packaging together with instructions, dosage (for medical substances), or similar preparations towards the protected use.