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Over the past five years, trade mark applications before the Turkish Patent Institute have almost doubled, reaching 72,633 in 2007 (see figure 1).

Peter Ollier, Hong Kong

The case of Austin Nichols & Co, Incorporated D/B/A Pernod Ricard v Stichting Lodestar is an unreported Singapore High Court appeal case against the decision of the Registrar of trade marks for the trade mark applications of Wild Geese in Class 32 and 33 by Austin Nichols & Co, Incorporated D/B/A Pernod Ricard. The trial judge dismissed the appeals, holding that: the respondent's mark, Wild Geese was not confusingly similar to the appellant's Wild Turkey mark pursuant to section 8(2)(b) of the Trade Marks Act; there was no likelihood of confusion between the marks Wild Turkey and Wild Geese; and the appellant did not make out a case of passing off under Section 8(7)(a) of the Trade Marks Act.

At the ninth session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore at WIPO in Geneva, the South African Minister for Science and Technology, Mosibudi Mangena, presented a working document on an Indigenous Knowledge Systems Policy for South Africa.

Trade mark use, according to Article 6 of the Trade Mark Act, means: "the use of a trade mark for marketing purposes upon goods, services or the relevant articles, or the use of a trade mark by means of two-dimensional graphics, digital audio and video, electronic media or any other media to an extent sufficient to enable the relevant consumers to recognize it as a trade mark."

Emma Barraclough, London

The trade in counterfeits is on the increase and therefore causing problems for companies across industries. In order to stop the sale of counterfeits, companies are faced with the challenge of finding the most effective and cost-efficient measures to protect their products.

Let us assume a European patent is granted and validated in Germany. The European patent claims priority of an earlier filed German priority application. This priority application becomes a patent and is still alive when the German part of the European patent is validated.

In Peru there are two regulations that forbid the registration of a trade mark when it infringes a copyright owned by a third party. One of these regulations is included in clause (g) of article 130 of the Legislative Decree 823 – Industrial Property Law, and the other is included in clause (f) of article 136 of Decision 486 – Common Regime regarding Industrial Property. These regulations state that the brand names consisting of a sign that may violate the IP rights or copyright of a third party or brand names that consist of titles of literary, artistic or scientific works that are the object of copyright protection may not be registered as trade marks.

Among non-registrable designations the Russian Trade Mark Law operative until January 1 2008 (and possibly the laws of the other countries) mentions the official names and images of exceptionally valuable cultural heritage objects of the Russian Federation. In this regard it is interesting to study a recent decision of the Chamber of Patent Disputes of the Russian PTO. The case concerns the cancellation of the Russian word trade mark Baikal, registration number 297,460. Baikal is a lake in Siberia characterized by exceptional natural properties. It is a unique ecological system and a UNESCO world natural heritage site. UNESCO has a catalogue of the World Cultural Heritage and also issued Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention.