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Last year's patent reform in India means that companies must quickly adopt new strategies to secure and protect their IP rights effectively and efficiently, says Mirut Dalal

Few foreign investors think they must pay attention to competition and antitrust concerns in their Chinese technology transfer deals. They need to think again, say Connie Carnabuci, Joan Wu and Melissa Handover of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

French legislators adopted a new copyright law on March 21 that forces companies to open up digital content to music devices of all makes.

In order to protect and enhance the prestige of a licensed mark, trade mark owners, when drafting trade mark licence agreements, typically focus their attention on ensuring that they maintain the necessary level of approval over, and consistency in, the use of the licensed mark. Unfortunately, this desire often becomes a secondary concern as trade mark owners are blinded by the revenue-generating opportunities that may be derived from a proposed licence agreement and therefore, gloss over certain integral protections.

There are a number of instances where the monopoly under a patent is not absolute. Recently, the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (US-SFTA) required Singapore to amend the compulsory license provisions in the Singapore Patents Act to include a remedy for anti-competitive practices.

Italian law number 80/2005 introduced incisive measures to combat counterfeiting, including:

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) holds German trade mark registrations for Fussball WM 2006 and WM 2006 for, inter alia, goods and services covering sporting events. These registrations were subject to cancellation actions, filed by Ferrero, who submitted that the marks lack distinctive character and are descriptive in relation to such goods and services; moreover, it was also alleged that the trade mark registrations were filed in bad faith.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government has stepped up its action against software piracy. Over the past year, raids were successfully carried out and lead to a number of people being arrested, large numbers of PCs and pirated software confiscated and pirated goods destroyed, and fines imposed on various individuals and companies. This is reassuring for companies wanting to enter the UAE.

In a development that could have far reaching consequences, the Indian Patent Office ruled against Novartis' patent application for Gleevec, an anti-cancer drug. This decision marks the beginning of judicial scrutiny of India's new product patent law. If the Indian Patent Office fails to analyze the intricate provisions of law more carefully, as in this case, research-based pharmaceutical companies may stay away from the Indian market.

How easily patents are granted and how well the overall patent system works are questions addressed by several reviews at the moment, one of them being the Gowers Review in the UK. Stephen Bennett and Daniel Brook ask whether the inventive step requirement is part of the problem in a system that produces a growing number of questionable patents