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Last month, after a long wait, the .eu registry signed a contract with the European Commission to start offering domains next year. But, as Tony Willoughby argues, the EC Regulations governing .eu (733/2002 and 874/2004) will lead to chaos and uncertainty and must be radically reexamined

The US-Australia free trade agreement, like the recent US-Singapore agreement, exports some key US patent concepts. Robert Cooper and Michael Swinson examine the extent to which it will change Australian domestic law

Chinese patent practice is very different from that of the EU, US, or Japan. Amy Feng of Liu, Shen & Associates urges firms to consider it when patenting second medical indications In China

Two IP owners trying to assert their rights by dispatching letters to competitors found the Australian courts unsympathetic. Charles Tansey of Shelston IP explains why

Carlos O Mitelman and Daniel R Zuccherino of Obligado & Cia take issue with Argentina’s system for patenting medicinal innovations

On April 3 2008, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPhil) held the first of its two scheduled stakeholders' forum for the year. The objective of the forum was to provide speedy and effective legal remedies to improve the quality of the decisions rendered and to promote the Bureau of Legal Affairs (BLA), the adjudication division of IPOPhil, as a forum of choice and to promote mediation as an alternative means to resolve disputes. The forum was attended by over a hundred practitioners, and presided by the director-general himself, Atty Adrian Cristobal Jr Some of the suggestions given by the IP practitioners are below.

The Italian Constitutional Court issued a decision (Number 112/2008) last April relating to the legal situation of lawsuit proceedings which are now under appeal and which were originally heard – during the first instance – by ordinary courts, that is according to the rules that applied before the entry into force of Decree Law Number 168/2003 of 2003, which created dedicated IP courts responsible for hearing IP matters.

• German pharma company Bayer suffered a blow when the antitrust authority in Germany fined it €10.3 million on April 28 for fixing the price of Aspirin and other over-the-counter medications.

Organizations in the Middle East are becoming more aware of the importance of and the value associated with their intellectual property rights. IP is being recognized as a primary or key asset of an organization and a key tool for achieving and maintaining a competitive advantage. Branding that incorporates the use of IP is also seen as an essential element of success in today's business environment and is responsible for conveying messages to consumers to differentiate a business and its products in the marketplace.

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) recently completed a review of its practice of raising objections based on morality considerations, and has just released new guidelines that may cause difficulties for some biotechnology patent applications.