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Stéphanie Bodoni, London

Companies are increasingly acknowledging domain names as an essential element of their IP portfolio. Jonathan Robinson looks at the threats to digital IP from cybersquatting, and offers some strategies for protecting against and recovering from damaging infringements

Snapshots of INTA's 125th Annual Meeting in Amsterdam

Of mice and men

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued its State Street Bank decision in July 1998. Following this decision, a large number of computer-related andbusiness model patent applications were filed and granted inthe US. In contrast to that, it is an implicit requirement of the EPC that any invention must have a technical character. Thus, a scheme for, for example, organizing a commercial operation, being of a pure commercial nature, even if run on a computer, would lack technical character and would therefore be excluded from patentability. In the case of a PCT application based on a US patent application which relates to a computer-related or business model invention, this difference between the EPC and US patent law is a problem when entering into the European phase. Regarding search, the EPO examiner has the discretion to do a complete search, a partial search or even no search at all, depending on the extent to which the claims refer to technical subject-matter. In the last two cases, the EPO transmits a declaration under Rule 45 EPC (EPO Form 1507) stating that it was not possible to carry out a meaningful search into the state of the art. The following alternative steps are possible in such a situation:

The past year has seen some blockbuster trade mark disputes in the European Court of Justice, which have overshadowed important decisions in national courts. Jeremy Phillips reviews some of the most interesting cases in France, Italy, the UK and the Benelux

Ingrid Hering, Berlin

In Société de Produits Nestlé SA v Unilever plc (December 18 2002, Jacob J), Unilever applied to register two trade marks relating to Vienetta ice cream, one with white wavy structure on top (the white mark) and the other with dark wavy structure (the dark mark).

The importance of some biotech inventions makes them strong candidates for compulsory licensing. Reinhardt Schuster and Clemens Rübel examine when such licences can be granted and contrast the approach taken in different countries

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has introduced a national management and auditing tool named Strategies for Creation, Ownership, Protection and Exploitation of Intellectual Property, or SCOPE-IP. In our technology driven world, IP plays a critical role and successful companies recognize the importance of performing due diligence so they can aggressively exploit their IP rights.