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Recent developments in procedural rules for appeals from trade mark opposition hearings have highlighted the pitfalls of failing to be fully prepared at first instance, warns Jill Delaney

Parties who wish to appeal against decisions in patent oppositions must appeal at the right time or they will be shut out. This was the outcome of a recent case in the Federal Court of Australia. In some cases it is the notionally successful party which must appeal, explain Richard Hamer and Jon Gottschall

Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation

According to the Mexican Law of Industrial Property (LPI), to renew a trade mark registration it is absolutely necessary that the mark has been used in Mexico within the last three consecutive years prior to petitioning for renewal. Nevertheless, sometimes it is not possible to fulfil this requirement, and in consequence, we have to inquire about the possibilities to obtain a renewal without use of the corresponding trade mark.

EU member states have established their own country code domain name assignment rules using divergent criteria. Carles Prat and Laura Poncela examine them against EC internal market principles

In recent years, many websites providing goods and services have appeared as a consequence of the development of the internet as a business environment. Consumers all over the world can find a very large range of goods and services easily and quickly. Under these circumstances it was obvious that domain names became a very important element in order to draw the consumer's attention.

In the past two years, a significant number of shadow companies have been incorporated in Hong Kong, adopting famous marks as part of their company names without the authorization of the rightful proprietor. These companies share the following features:

The South African government has introduced a number of reforms to the Patents Act that will help to clarify the boundaries of IP protection, and make life easier for patentees. James Nurton reports

Today, the vast majority of national patents pending in the European countries have evolved from patents granted by the European Patent Office. Even if the validity of such a patent has been confirmed in opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office, it can still be attacked in nullity proceedings before the national patent authorities. In national invalidation proceedings, any differences between the European Patent Office and the national authorities with respect to the interpretation of the basic standards for patentability might turn into a trap for the patent owner.

The Federal Court of Australia has struck another blow for novel trade marks with its recent decision to allow the registration of a single-colour mark. Justice Mansfield ruled that Philmac, a maker of equipment for the water industry, can register terracotta as a colour mark for non-metallic rigid irrigation pipe fittings because it is capable of distinguishing the company's products. Philmac had appealed to the court after the Registrar of Trade Marks had rejected the application.