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The launch of Google's Street View service in the UK last month caused many commentators to condemn the service as a breach of privacy and basic human rights. The residents of one Buckinghamshire village were so outraged at the idea of their houses being photographed for the service that when the Google car arrived to snap the village, they formed a human barrier forcing the car to turn around (ironically drawing more attention to themselves than if they had just let the car through).

Widespread copyright infringement on the internet has a serious impact on a range of businesses. Since activities on the internet cannot be conducted without using internet service providers (ISPs), these ISPs are at risk of being sued by copyright holders. Because this situation is unfavourable to the growth and development of the internet industry, and in an attempt to deter online copyright infringement, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) drafted an amendment to the Copyright Act on February 14 2008 to specify the limitations on ISP liability. The amendment was passed by the legislative body on April 21 2009.

Under Thai practice, an application for a trade mark with multiple meanings may be rejected if one of the possible meanings of the mark could be considered descriptive of the goods for which registration is sought. Contrary to this common practice, however, the following case provides an example of a trade mark application that was initially rejected by the registrar on grounds of descriptiveness, but was subsequently accepted for registration by the Board of Trade Marks.

The patent prosecution highway (PPH) pilot programme between the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) was implemented on February 2 2009 to allow applicants to obtain corresponding patents in the United States and Singapore more quickly and efficiently. Under the PPH, when at least one claim in an application in either one of these countries has been found to be patentable, the applicant can apply for fast track examination of the corresponding claim(s) in the US and Singapore patent applications, respectively.

As policy makers search for ways to tackle climate change, IP owners are becoming concerned that patent rights in green technologies could be under threat. Eileen McDermott and Emma Barraclough report

The numbers of oppositions filed per each patent granted at the EPO vary greatly according to industry. The EPO's T M Haeusser analyzes and explains the latest data

Pooja Dodd and Debashish Sankhari of FoxMandal Little describe how trade marks are registered in India and explore recent case law

Bruce Proctor has global responsibility for all IP matters at premium drinks company Diageo. He tells Ingrid Hering about the challenges of protecting a brand portfolio that includes Smirnoff, Baileys and Guinness

On the eve of the launch of .eu, Nick Wood examines the relationship between IP owners and ccTLD administrators in Europe and calls for greater harmonization. A table overleaf profiles the 32 ccTLD registries in Europe and provides information on registering domain names and resolving disputes in each one

The Supreme Court will this month hear arguments in a case that will set the boundaries for what research is exempted from patent infringement. Lily Rin-Laures and Sandip Patel explain what the outcome will mean for researchers and patent owners