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Peter Ollier introduces the Managing IP trade mark survey results, and looks at how a proposed trade agreement could help tackle global counterfeiting and piracy

An Israeli court has ordered Google Israel and a local ISP to disclose information relating to subscribers suspected of online piracy. Gadi Oron argues that the decision will be invaluable for IP owners

Mark Marfé introduces a survey on obtaining evidence of infringement in the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands, and looks at how US discovery can help a European case

Trade mark practitioners have broadly welcomed last month's opinion by the European Court of Justice on comparative advertising and trade mark infringement

Peter van Essen of Nederlandsch Octrooibureau examines the impact of a recent Dutch case that provides lessons on patent invalidity actions

The USPTO and KIPO made permanent their patent prosecution highway trial with effect from January 29. The USPTO has also extended its pilot project with the Canadian IP Office until 2011. The map shows all the PPH pilots and programmes announced so far. Next month's issue of Managing IP will include an article looking at the practical implications of PPHs for practitioners. For more information, go to www.managingip.com/pph

A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam - who received the world’s first recorded patent in 1449

• US: Microsoft issued 10,000th patent Microsoft received its 10,000th US patent last month, a milestone the company said highlights its goal of obtaining enough patents to maximise the value of its R&D efforts, while still focussing on patent quality over quantity. Addressing the considerably higher number of patents owned by competitor IBM, Microsoft's chief patent counsel Bart Eppenauer said: "We really focus on trying to achieve the right balance. What matters is that our portfolio remains strategically in line with our business model." Last month, IBM became the first company to be issued more than 4,000 US patents in one year, surpassing the total number of patents earned by Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Apple, EMC, Accenture and Google combined.

German bus maker Neoplan has won a landmark case after two Chinese companies were found to have copied the design of its buses

Given the economic situation, my company is looking to cut costs from our IP department and one option is not to renew some of our patent portfolio. Which factors should I consider in deciding which patents not to renew?