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On March 5 the Italian Decree of the President Number 275 on copyright protection came into force. This decree amends a provision dating back to 1942 (the Italian Royal Decree Number 1369).

In Peru there are two regulations that forbid the registration of a trade mark when it infringes a copyright owned by a third party. One of these regulations is included in clause (g) of article 130 of the Legislative Decree 823 – Industrial Property Law, and the other is included in clause (f) of article 136 of Decision 486 – Common Regime regarding Industrial Property. These regulations state that the brand names consisting of a sign that may violate the IP rights or copyright of a third party or brand names that consist of titles of literary, artistic or scientific works that are the object of copyright protection may not be registered as trade marks.

Let us assume a European patent is granted and validated in Germany. The European patent claims priority of an earlier filed German priority application. This priority application becomes a patent and is still alive when the German part of the European patent is validated.

Canada has its own classification system for designs comprising 50 classes and 220 subclasses, compared to the Locarno System, which has 32 classes and 102 subclasses. The Design Office is studying the possibility of utilizing the Locarno classes together with more detailed subclasses from the Canadian classification system, thereby permitting Canada to harmonize with other IP offices.

James Nurton, London

Kai Yang of Liu, Shen & Associates explains how to deal with the unresolved problem of trade mark rights and trade name rights

At the ninth session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore at WIPO in Geneva, the South African Minister for Science and Technology, Mosibudi Mangena, presented a working document on an Indigenous Knowledge Systems Policy for South Africa.

Trade mark use, according to Article 6 of the Trade Mark Act, means: "the use of a trade mark for marketing purposes upon goods, services or the relevant articles, or the use of a trade mark by means of two-dimensional graphics, digital audio and video, electronic media or any other media to an extent sufficient to enable the relevant consumers to recognize it as a trade mark."

James Nurton, London

Dr Wolfgang Festl-Wietek and Adam Bogsch of Viering, Jentschura & Partner ask three questions about brand management: Is the attorney just a necessary evil? Is litigation a component of brand management? And is Germany a good place for litigation?