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The creation of the specialised intellectual property section of the Federal Court for Tax and Administrative Affairs (FCTAA), which began functioning on January 5, marks an important development in the Mexican intellectual property landscape.

On August 26 2008, the IP High Court revoked a JPO decision that rejected a patent application on the basis that it was not directed to a patentable subject matter (an "invention" as defined under Japanese Patent Law), and remanded the case to JPO. The Patent Law defines a statutory invention as "a highly advanced creation of technical ideas utilizing a law of nature." The JPO's examination guidelines provide that if the foundation of a claimed invention rests on a law other than a law of nature (economic principles, for example), arbitrary arrangements (rules for playing a game), or use only those laws (business methods), then these do not qualify as an invention under the Patent Law because they do not use a law of nature.

In our article in September 2006, we commented on a European decision that caused a sensation in Italy because it introduced a ban on the use of the name "Tocai Friulano" for the well-known Italian wine produced in the Friuli region (east of Venice) due to the prior rights of the Hungarian geographical region Tokaj.

V&S Vin & Sprit Aktiebolag (V&S), the owner of the Absolut trade mark, one of the most well-known and reputed brands in the world for spirits and luxury goods, filed a civil suit in India against Bangalore based pharmaceutical company Pharmed and one of its subsidiaries (Pharmed) for infringing, passing off and diluting its well-known trade mark Absolut in India. V&S came to know about the said infringement in early 2007 through Pharmed's website, where it was displaying and offering for sale anti-oxidant capsules and syrups under an identical mark. V&S immediately notified Pharmed of the infringement and misuse of its well-known mark and requested that it immediately cease and desist such infringing acts.

In a recent decision (Ionenaustauschverfahren; 3 Ni 48/06 (EU)), the German Federal Patent Court (BPatG) ruled on who has to bear the costs in a nullity suit against a patent that is upheld with restricted claims that were not attacked by the plaintiff.

An overwhelming 82% of IP practitioners favour the rapid implementation of a European Community patent, according to a poll

Managing IP presents the first part of its annual survey, ranking the leading firms for patent work in 70 jurisdictions

IBM has become the first company to be issued more than 4,000 US patents in one year

• Film companies test ISP liability A coalition of Australian film makers has launched a case against internet service provider iiNet that will test liability for online copyright infringement in Australia. The coalition is claiming that iiNet did not take enough action to prevent its users from illegally sharing, copying and transmitting films and TV shows such as Ocean's 13, Prison Break and Bones over BitTorrent networks, despite being presented with evidence by the companies. Michael Williams of Gilbert + Tobin is acting for the copyright owners.

Giving out promotional items does not amount to making genuine use of a trade mark in the class covering those items, the ECJ ruled last month