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On April 4 2007 a Supplementary Order paper to the Major Events Management Bill inserted a new subpart 5 into Part 2, which deals with ambush marketing.

The German Federal Patent Court recently upheld the first instance decision of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (GPTO) judging the word marks Quellgold and Goldquell to be confusingly similar in the sense of paragraph 9 section 1 No 2 of the German Trade Mark Act.

In April 2007, the National Working Group for IPR Protection launched the Action Plan on IPR Protection 2007 to outline the substantive IP measures that China will take in 2007.

Even in the first Austrian Patent Law of 1897, there was a special provision that the Court had to terminate the effect of an interlocutory injunction if the defendant offered an adequate security. The Court had only to judge whether the amount offered was adequate. Over the years, people concerned complained that it was impossible to enforce a preliminary injunction since defendants nearly always paid the security as it was generally set at an affordable price. This unsatisfactory situation remained until a major patent law reform in 1988 when this stringent provision was changed into a possibility. The Court could now on its own finding terminate a preliminary injunction for an adequate security by considering the specific circumstances. Since then, in rare cases the effect of preliminary injunctions was terminated for a specific act, but not generally (for example to allow the construction of certain buildings to be finished).

The High Court has recently attempted to clarify the extremely complicated area of law in Australia dealing with the overlap between the Copyright and Designs Acts.

The government of Kenya, mindful of its obligations under the TRIPS Agreement, published the Counterfeit Goods Bill back in 2005. The Bill would provide for direct, effective action against counterfeiters by a specialized agency. However, its progress towards the statute book has been impeded by prolonged recesses of Parliament and preparations for general elections, to be held later in 2007.

The long-running saga of the Douglas and Zeta-Jones wedding and the two rival magazines is now finally over: the UK's highest court has ruled on the matter (Douglas and another and others v Hello! Limited and others [2007] UKHL 21) and there can be no further appeal.

An increasing number of examiners say the patent system faces collapse. Robert Budens, president of the Patent Office Professional Association, explains

Recent court decisions have created uncertainty for patent licensors. Marc Morley and Brenden Gingrich of Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear explain how patent owners could improve their weakened position

Ylva Skoglösa, Edward Farrington and Ulf Inger of Valea explain how applications can be drafted to avoid many of the problems that have arisen in life sciences patenting recently