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Last year we witnessed celebrations of significant anniversaries connected with patent offices and IP rights in Germany and Austria. Meanwhile, the Czech Patent Office quietly marked the 80th anniversary of its foundation in 1919.

There is no recent decision of the German Federal Patent or Supreme Court dealing with the patentability of plants or animals. However, issuance of the EC Directive on Biotechnological Inventions on July 6 1998 and the decision G1/98 by the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) on December 20 1999, will influence the interpretation of the provisions on the patentability of plants and animals.

There has been a steady flow of interesting trade mark disputes in India in the past year. Pravin Anand, of Anand & Anand in New Delhi, reviews the most important cases

The German Federal Supreme Court recently issued two decisions on the registrability of slogans (Radio von hier, Radio wie wir and Partner with the Best, both dated December 8 1999), which have terminated an ongoing controversy in Germany. According to these decisions, the requirements for distinctiveness of slogans are not any greater than for regular word marks.

Under Australian law it is possible to make post grant amendments to a patent either before the Commissioner of Patents, or in the Federal Court of Australia. Typically an application for amendment to the Federal Court is lodged when the patentee is about to commence infringement proceedings on the basis of advice that amendments are required to correct defects or to limit the relevance of prior art. In a recent case, Gambro Pty Ltd v Fresenius Medical Care South East Asia Pty Ltd, amendments were sought to limit the field of invention to the area of real interest fluids for dialysis and related procedures in order to strengthen the patentee´ s position in a cross claim for invalidity.

In today’s fast-moving markets, successful new products and services are the key to success. And securing patents is an essential element of product and process development. But how do you avoid patent infringement? Are you wasting valuable research funds on products already protected by patents? Could you be missing out on lucrative licensing opportunities?

Estonia has revised many of its IP laws in recent years

As yet another supermarket challenges a brand owner over grey goods, Sandra McDonald analyzes the results of a new survey on the attitude of businesses towards exhaustion

Helen Papaconstantinou, of Dr Helen Papaconstantinou and Associates in Athens, explains how to make the most of licensing opportunities in Greece