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The decision of the Court of Appeal in Douglas & Others v Hello Ltd has been heralded as having recognized a right of privacy in English law. Stephen Bate and Lawrence Abramson analyze the decision and its implications

Internet and e-commerce allow an entrepreneur to develop sales schemes of its products and services with a never previously imagined territorial scope and extension. Direct selling is both attractive and advantageous. E-commerce requires in some cases, therefore, the adjustment and of course, the amendment of some clauses of commercial inter-mediation contracts, either distribution, agency, licence, supply or franchise contracts.

Fact they say is stranger than fiction. In the David v Goliath case that is Trovan v Pfizer this is certainly true. In the story David slays Goliath and is proclaimed king. In the Trovan case, Pfizer´ s Goliath is made of stronger stuff. On January 11, Trovan filed an appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court challenging an earlier ruling which overturned a record $143 million damages award to the company for infringement of its Trovan trade mark.

CHINA: Intcera High Tech Group is adding a new plant in mainland China to expand its manufacture of fibre-optics components. CHINA: The Ministry of Information Industry and National Copyright Administration prepared a draft amendment to the Regulations for the Protection of Computer Software. Changes include an extension of the period of protection for software from 25 years to 50 years. EUROPE: From January 1 2001, new Block Exemptions and Guidelines, which affect trade between the member states of the European Union, became effective. The aim of the Guidelines is to provide a simplified framework for assessing whether a horizontal agreement comes within the Article 81 (1) prohibition and, if it does, whether it is exempt from it. UK: Protocol Solutions, which specialized in NT and desktop systems, has been forced into receivership following legal action taken by the police over counterfeit software. US: Brobeck Phleger & Harrison raised its first-year associate pay by $10,000 to $135,000. A first-year associate can now expect to receive $170,000. US: In the first case of its kind, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have claimed a website selling counterfeit software on the internet as part of a criminal case. Maria Yolanda and Sola Lirola, who made $900,000 in profit, sold software billed as retail products from companies such as Adobe and Microsoft.

John P Fry and Christopher B Roblyer examine how to defend against charges of wilful infringement and the risk of waiving the attorney-client privilege in US patent and trade mark disputes

In preparation for joining the WTO, China has amended its patent law. Jiwen Chen says the changes will enhance protection and simplify application procedures and enforcement

In Mexico, the Domain Name Registrar is an entity called NIC-Mexico (Network Information Centre de Mexico), which handles registration and administration of domain names identified with the ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain) ".mx". NIC-Mexico is not an authority and it has not been granted official authorization for being in charge of the Mexican domain names management. However, NIC-Mexico is today the only "entity" which has responsibility for managing Mexican domains.

By means of a disclaimer, non-patentable embodiments can be excluded from the scope of a generic claim. Disclaimers are most often used in order to establish novelty. Both the German Patent Office and the European Patent Office accept disclaimers and do not require the disclaimer to have a basis in the patent application as filed.

The greatest structural development in the internet´ s history ended on November 16, with the introduction of seven new domain names.

Napster, MP3.com, and Scour have all sent shivers down the spines of internet copyright holders in the digital copyright war. But a decision by the Librarian of Congress may provide the additional weaponry copyright holders need.