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Wim Van der Eijk has been appointed vice president of the European Patent Office, in charge of the Boards of Appeal. Van der Eijk, 54, will take over from Peter Messerli, who is retiring at the end of November after 15 years in the role. The appointment is for five years. Before joining the EPO, he was chief legal officer of the Netherlands Patent Office and manager of its patent division. He also worked in the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands, as well as serving as an honorary judge at the District Court of The Hague, In April this year, Messerli received Managing IP magazine's Outstanding Achievement Award.

The growth rate of ccTLDs in 2011 increased by more than 10%, meaning the downward trend in registrations that began in 2007 is beginning to reverse.

Bipartisan legislation to crack down on online IP infringement has come under attack from campaigners and businesses who claim the bills go too far and are unenforceable. S-968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property (PROTECT IP) Act and House Bill HR-3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, target infringing offshore web sites by taking action against third-party facilitators, such as domain name registrars and credit card processors. Katherine Oyama, policy counsel for Google told a House Judiciary Committee meeting chaired by Lamar Smith of Texas that the definition of a rogue site is “overbroad”. Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of the Business Software Alliance, has said that more work needs to be done. The White House has also declined to endorse the legislation.

The Court of Justice’s senior legal adviser says the Court of Justice of the EU should harmonise the way that IP offices in Europe interpret class headings. In his opinion in the IP Translator case, Advocate General Yves Bot said that OHIM’s class-heading-covers-all approach to applications does not provide the clarity required for registering trade marks.

The Australian government has rejected a ban on gene patents, but proposed adding an ethical test to the Patents Act that could cause IP owners some headaches. In its response to three enquiries into aspects of its patent system – the Senate Community Affairs Committee inquiry into gene patents, the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP) review of patentable subject matter and an Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) report on gene patenting and human health – Kim Carr, the minister for innovation, acknowledged concern over gene patents, but said that a ban was not the answer. “We need the incentives provided by the patent system to encourage the development of new technologies. But this government will not allow patent owners to block reasonable access to affordable medical treatments and essential diagnostic tests, nor to stifle legitimate research,” he said.

On June 1 this year, Maria Pallante was named the 12th US register of copyrights. Pallante had served as the acting register since January 1, following Marybeth Peters’ retirement from 16 years in the position. Pallante first joined the Copyright Office in 1996, serving two years as a policy adviser, then returned in 2007 to serve first as deputy general counsel and then as associate register for policy and international affairs. Much of her career in copyright law was spent in New York, where she was the IP counsel and director for the Guggenheim Museums’ licensing group.

The UK Supreme Court’s first patent judgment will be welcomed by patent owners, but could block future research. James Nurton examines the impact

K&L Gates has established an office in Charleston, following the addition of a seven-partner team from Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein.

Christian Louboutin found two allies in the past two months in its fight to protect its red-sole trade mark. Jewellery company Tiffany submitted its amicus brief to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in October, while INTA submitted in November. Both reveal interesting aspects of the issues behind the case, and its potential impact should Louboutin fail to reverse the decision by the Southern District of New York.

The unitary patent in Europe is now almost a certainty. One way to tell is that most people have stopped talking about the languages and procedure, and begun concentrating on the location of the central division of the court. The UK and Germany have something other than the debt crisis to fight about. Legal abstraction has been replaced with concrete self-interest.