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Many African countries emerged from colonialism with common-law heritages. When considering treaties such as Paris, Madrid, the PCT and those pertaining to ARIPO, practitioners have been guided by the common-law rule: an international agreement can only become part of the domestic law of a subscribing country when it has expressly been enacted into that national law by an Act of Parliament.

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

• 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.

As part of the Senate's compromise on patent reform proposed last month, a new provision on false patent marking would put an end to the recent proliferation of such cases

The vast majority of patent cases are factually driven, but the Austrian Supreme Court has recently handed down two judgments that assess several questions of law. Accordingly, these decisions are likely to serve as the leading cases for many patent judgments in the future.

The Commercial Court has raised the hopes of well-known brand owners facing the grim task of tackling trade mark pirates in Indonesia.

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.

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