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Patent litigation is becoming more popular in the Czech Republic. Karel Cermak Jr of Cermak Horejs Myslil in Prague provides a guide for potential litigants

Despite the introduction of the EU Biotechnology Directive, there remains opposition to biotech patents in Germany. Mathias Ricker reviews a recent EPO decision which provides guidance for applicants

Faced with an unauthorized use of his photograph, motor racing driver Eddie Irvine tried to enforce his personality rights in court. David Rose examines what the decision reveals about the English courts’ attitude to character rights

The realities of market economics in Romania and the free play of supply and demand mean that there is always the danger of dishonest means being used to attract customers. This makes industrial property protection and the protection (or apparent protection) of trade marks a key area. However, there are numerous interferences in trade mark and industrial design, especially in the domain of bi- and three-dimensional figurative marks, mainly those concerning labels, the form of products and their packaging.

Ingrid Hering, London

The trend to harmonize intellectual property laws in Europe continues with the introduction of a proposed Directive on computer-implemented inventions; if the Directive is adopted in its current form it may mean Europe provides less patent protection for software than is currently available in the US, argues Michael Molineaux of Haarmann Hemmelrath in London

In a recent case, the ECJ affirmed that parallel importers can repackage pharmaceutical products for resale in the EU – but the court gave no guidance on how repackaging should be undertaken. Hiroshi Sheraton examines the decision

Downloading free music in the form of MP3 files has been a point of discussion for a long time now. Only last year Napster, a file exchange program mainly used for music files, was closed down by a US judge. However, a Netherlands competitor to Napster, KaZaA, recently survived a controversial case against Buma/Stemra, the Netherlands agency for collecting copyrights.

New industrial property regulations in Poland give the Supreme Administrative Court control over the legality of decisions issued by the Polish Patent Office. The new rules that came into force on August 22 last year overturn more than 60 years of administrative procedure where control was limited to extraordinary appeals against final sentences which could be filed only by administrative boards in clearly defined special situations. These appeals were examined by judges of the Chamber of Administration Labour and Social Insurance at the Supreme Court and until last August the Supreme Administrative Court (which was set up in 1980), did not examine any matters related to industrial property. Under Polish constitutional law the Supreme Administrative Court along with the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Tribunal and the Tribunal of State is the highest court in Poland.

Ralph Cunningham, Asia Editor, MIP