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The false marking troll is on the prowl following two recent court rulings. Thomas Turano advises companies how to steer clear of these clever critters

Legal music streaming services offer a real alternative to illegal downloading sites. So why aren’t they growing faster, asks Emma Barraclough

• Federal Circuit bolsters design patents The Federal Circuit in February overturned a ruling by the International Trade Commission (ITC) that said that shoe designs mimicking the popular Crocs footwear did not infringe the company's design patent. In his opinion, Judge Randall Rader of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit applied the Egyptian Goddess standard for determining design patent infringement. He criticised the ITC for its "excessive reliance on a detailed verbal description in design infringement cases", saying that the written claim description in this case "distorts the infringement analysis by the ordinary observer viewing the design as a whole". Lawyers say that the decision could encourage more IP owners to protect their innovations with design patents.

With companies struggling to adapt from traditional to digital models of generating revenue from copyrighted content, a number of businesses have lessons to offer content owners. Eileen McDermott reports

Since November 1 2007, a change in the Belgian Patent Law has made the courts of the Chambers of Commerce (in the jurisdictions where there is a Court of Appeal) the competent courts to decide patent cases, instead of the courts of first instance. The aim was to centralise the patent cases in fewer courts, five in practice, to ensure that these cases would over time be treated by more experienced judges.

India's Supreme Court will hear an appeal by German drug maker Bayer in a case that aims to link the country's IP office and its drug regulator

A growing number of high-tech companies that built their businesses on the back of proprietary IP are experimenting with open-source. Mark Kenrick explains why

Seven years after LVMH sued Google over its AdWords programme, Europe’s top court has ruled that the search engine is not liable under EU trade mark law. But that’s far from the end of the story

Italy has introduced new rules to stop manufacturers deceiving customers about where their products were made. Simone Verducci-Galletti and Donatella Prandin of Bugnion explain how they could catch out the unwary

Following the implementation of the new Patent Law on October 1 2009, the new Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China were adopted by the State Council on December 30 2009 and came into force on February 1 2010. The changes made in the Regulations are quite extensive and a number of points are worth nothing.