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On December 9, the European Designs Directive comes into force in the UK, marking the biggest ever overhaul of design protection in the country. Sarah Whalley Coombes discusses the new regime and its implications for IP owners

A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam - who received the world's first recorded patent in 1449

IP management software systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Web-enabled technology means that systems can be easily deployed across a business and more specifically, because the software is more flexible, the IP department is able to utilize it for more complex business strategy and financial accounting purposes. These developments are invaluable when many IP departments are experiencing increased pressure to accurately track costs, manage and reduce their costs and generate accurate budgets and forecasts.

Once considered an easy target for western companies seeking to assert their patents, Asian companies from Japan to Taiwan are taking the initiative and negotiating some interesting licensing deals of their own. Emma Barraclough examines the trends

The entire revocation of a European patent is very rare, and can take up to seven years. Jürgen Kaiser looks at the advantages of another option - filing observations while the patent is still in the examination phase

Recent decisions in the UK and Australia have shown diverging views of what novelty requires. Justin Watts and Peter Chalk ask whether some of the tests applied by the courts to check whether prior art is novelty-destroying are going a step too far

In a recent Australian case, the courts refused a patent for a business method because the invention did not benefit society as a whole. James Walsh and Robert Cooper examine business method patents and consider whether the greater good is a valid reason for refusal

Andrea Lensing-Kramer and Peter Ruess discuss the peculiarities of an efficient yet often unknown tool for protecting intellectual property rights in Germany

In a reference for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesgerichtshof of Germany, the European Court of Justice has been asked to determine the concept of "combination of active ingredients" in Article 1(b) of Regulation No 1768/92 on supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) for medicinal products (Case C-431/04 – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – Opinion of Advocate General Léger on November 24 2005).

On February 3 2006 Law number 344/2005 regarding certain measures aimed at ensuring the observance of IP rights upon Customs clearance entered into force in Romania.