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Icann's latest draft Applicant Guidebook for new generic top-level domains, released April 15, has enhanced some trade mark protections. The draft Guidebook now says that all new gTLD registries must provide both a Trade mark Claims and a Sunrise service. Previously, they could provide either one or the other. In a second important change, the latest draft has made it easier for trade marks to be included in the Clearinghouse. The previous draft said that only marks that have undergone "substantive review" would be recognised during Sunrise services, which might have excluded trade marks registered in offices that only examine on absolute grounds, including OHIM. However, trade mark owners will have to show use. The draft also includes a 'loser pays' model to the uniform rapid suspension process, but in only cases involving 26 or more domains.

The number of EPO applications from China has leapt 96% from 6,490 in 2008 to 12,698 in 2010, according to data released by the EPO last month. "China is progressing very quickly," said EPO President Benoît Battistelli at a press conference in Brussels, "but there is only one Chinese company in the top 50 list". Siemens tops that list with 2,135 applications, followed by Philips (1,765) and BASF (1,707).

Draft legislation that would make Australia the first country to ban logos and branding from tobacco packaging has left questions over TRIPs compliance unanswered.

India’s IP office - can you find your trade marks? With admissions that thousands of trade mark files have gone missing in India, the trade mark database is full of errors and officials have been arrested on corruption charges, lawyers are recommending that IP owners check their registrations and try to reconstruct anything that is missing.

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Six US film studios have brought a copyright suit against Zediva, a start-up that blurs the line between DVD rental stores and online streaming services. In their complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, Warner Bros, Columbia, Disney, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios are asking for the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 for each DVD. Zediva, which was launched in March, offers much lower prices than other streaming services. It rents DVD players and films that users can remotely access online. A rented DVD copy cannot be checked out by another consumer while in use. The company insists it is a model unlike online streaming sites, such as Netflix, and likens itself to bricks-and-mortar DVD rental stores. It has stopped allowing new registrations so it can increase capacity.

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The internet is about to feel very different. Hundreds of thousands of websites are being set up using entirely Chinese, Cyrillic and Arabic scripts, among others. For luxury goods brands in particular, the right strategy now could turn a counterfeit headache into a marketing opportunity. By Fionn O’Raghallaigh

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