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Judge Jean Claude Tron Petit serves as a magistrate on Mexico's Circuit Court for Administrative Matters, one of the deciding authorities for IP appeals. Eileen McDermott spoke with the judge about the court’s role and the challenges it faces

As the internet continues to grow as a marketing and sales tool for businesses, so too does the number of internet scams and frauds. The increasing complexity of internet scams can make it quite difficult for a trade mark owner to tell the difference between a legitimate sales solicitation that might be appropriate to consider and a blatant scam that should be avoided.

You have an invention you want to patent. To qualify in most countries, your invention must meet the standard for so-called absolute novelty. This means it cannot have been sold or disclosed in prior patents, publications, trade brochures, advertisements, etc. Such items constitute what is referred to as the prior art.

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The internet embodies a vital marketing platform for modern business, and may serve as the source of information on companies' activities. Companies embarking on a new business or undertaking a brand expansion plan under a selected trade mark need to have web pages to host their information online. These web pages require addresses or domain names incorporating the company's trade mark. Domain names are the company's identity or trade mark in cyberspace. The registration of the domain name is an essential step to secure the selected trade mark from third party's use.

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has recently published revised examination guidelines for patent applications relating to medical inventions. The revisions are to take into account amendments to patent law made by the provisions of the Patents Act 2004, which came in force on December 13 2007 following the implementation of the European Patent Convention 2000. As always, the guidelines are a comprehensive explanation of the practice of the IPO and all practitioners in this field are advised to consult them.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced an amendment to its examination guidelines broadening the scope of patentable inventions using materials from human bodies (including materials from deceased persons), effective as of July 1 2008. Prior to this amendment, inventions using materials from human bodies were generally not patentable in Korea. Such inventions were believed to harm human dignity and be ethically unacceptable. Even inventions using materials from deceased persons were generally not allowed. The only exception to this prohibition under the previous examination guidelines was using parts of the human body that were obtained naturally and not artificially (e.g. surgery). For example, inventions using blood or placenta naturally discharged from the human body were allowed while use of cells removed through surgical procedures was not.

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The new Portuguese Industrial Property Code, approved by Decree-Law 143/2008 of July 24, came into force on October 1 2008.

EGYP, Paris