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Registrations of the new .eu domain names started on December 7 2005. To protect the interests of brand owners and companies there is a sunrise period in which they will be allowed to apply for .eu domain names corresponding to their trade marks and company names. The general public will have to wait until 7 April 2006 before they can make applications. It is hoped that this head start will help to prevent a flood of abusive registrations by cybersquatters, but brand owners and companies must act quickly to take full advantage of it.

Autocontrol is a private Spanish association whose members are many of the leading advertisers, advertising agencies and mass media. One of its objects is resolving disputes and matters arising in connection with specific advertising.

On April 1 2005, the Singapore authorities amended the patent rules. The amendment was intended to clarify the deadlines for the various search and examination options for patent applications filed in Singapore. The search and examination options include traditional substantive examination as well as reliance on prescribed information from a corresponding foreign patent.

A reference for a preliminary ruling under Article 234 EC was received from the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf (Germany) at the European Court of Justice on March 5 2004 concerning the interpretation of Article 5 (1)(b) of First Council Directive 89/104/EEC of December 21 1988 in the case Medion AG (petitioner) v Thomson multimedia Sales German & Austria GmbH (defendant) dealing with the following question:

Recently the Benelux Trademarks Office (BTO) announced that as from January 1 2006 the opposition procedure will be open for all classes. This means that oppositions can be filed against all applications filed on or after January 1 2006.

More and more people are incorporating companies in Hong Kong whose names include trade marks that do not belong to them. These so-called shadow companies can confuse customers and the authorities into thinking they are related to the genuine brand owner. Adelaide Yu provides strategies for dealing with the problem

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

The internet has changed the way we do business. We size up our holiday options in our lunch breaks, select our Christmas gifts online without moving from our seats and communicate with friends and associates by e-mail to plan weekend events and corporate deals. Ours is a digital age, and today's business must harness the capabilities of the internet if it is to succeed in both global and local markets. IP practices are no exception, but while IP firms have not been slow to follow the digital trends in terms of marketing their services, the same cannot always be said for the software they use to support their work.

Japan's courts have handed down important decisions in 2002 on topics including the doctrine of equivalents and work-related inventions, explains Yoshitaka Sonoda of Sonoda & Kobayashi in Tokyo

At its recent meeting, ICANN announced that it will push ahead with plans to increase the number of top-level domains. But trade mark owners are alarmed by the extra costs and opportunities for piracy that expansion will bring. Ingrid Hering reports