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Here are some examples of how authors and publishers are using new technology to improve the experience of readers.

After seven years of deliberation, the Icann Board approved the controversial application for the domain extension .xxx on March 18. The application for the sponsored TLD has attracted criticism from some governments and even from the so-called Free Speech Coalition, an alleged adult entertainment trade group, which claimed the application lacked community support and protested outside the Icann meeting in San Francisco on March 17 (pictured).

In a much overdue opinion, Federal Judge Denny Chin said that the proposed Google Book Search settlement would effectively reward Google "for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission".

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last month affirmed a summary judgment dismissing a copyright and trade mark infringement action over unauthorised Betty Boop merchandise.

Global-tech's petition to the US Supreme Court is unlikely to succeed, said lawyers following the oral arguments in Global-Tech v SEB in late February. The case could change the standard for assessing whether a party induced patent infringement. Eight of the nine justices on the Court actively questioned counsel for both sides during the hearing, but seemed more concerned with defining the parameters of the proper standard for inducing patent infringement than with the facts of the case. Justice Stephen Breyer pleaded with SEB's counsel for help articulating a standard, while Justice John Roberts pointed out holes in Global-Tech's preferred test. "They were not getting the help they wanted," said Mark Davies of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe. "They seemed frustrated." However, all of the justices seemed sceptical of Global-Tech subsidiary Pentalpha's failure to reveal to its US lawyer that it reverse-engineered SEB's deep fryer in developing its own, and lawyers said the company is unlikely to win.

John Alty, UK IPO These things always seem to happen together. The same day that the Court of Justice of the EU published its opinion on a single European patent court, one of the most eagerly awaited decisions in years, the European Commission also published its Trade Mark Study. This, in the words of John Alty, head of the UK's IPO, was "a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us to change how the trade mark system works". He told the audience at ITMA's Spring Meeting that everyone involved in trade marks should take the time to digest and consider the study's implications.

Last month saw a series of events in the long-running history of the single European patent. Rulings were issued, councils and parliaments voted. Yet it is hard not to feel that nothing has changed.

Internet service provider (ISP) iiNet has proved its PR skill on several occasions throughout its battle with the Australian Federation against Copyright Theft (AFACT), being pro-active wherever possible. Last month it took that one step further, by proposing its own, unique regulatory system for online piracy.

The Australian government is planning to pass a bill to allow generic drug makers to reuse the documents produced by innovator companies when trying to get a new drug approved.

China’s government has missed a March 19 deadline to comply with a WTO ruling that it must lift restrictions on the distribution of films, books and media.