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On April 1 Korea concluded historic free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with the US. Korea has a $1 trillion economy and is the United States's seventh largest partner in trading goods, while the US is Korea's second largest market, importing 17% of Korean exports. In general, the FTA will eliminate tariffs and other restraints on trade in addition to strengthening economic ties between the two countries.

Today the Indian Patent office is a live organization. It has been growing, adapting and is now socializing with its peers. Until the late 1990s, the Office was a low profile organization working quietly under the Department of Commerce. But since the dawn of this century the Patent Office has begun to emerge as an active organization determined to make its mark. As a part of efforts to improve its level of service the Office has been collaborating with various developed patent offices around the world. The most recent of these collaborations is with the EPO.

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) recently announced plans to move forward with implementation of its new WHOIS policy. The anticipated changes will mean that contact information for individual domain name owners will not be readily available to trade mark owners for trade mark enforcement purposes.

On January 4 2007, the Department of Agriculture (DA) issued the implementing rules and regulations of the Livestock and Poultry Feeds Act (RA 1556, amended by PD 7), governing the registration of feed establishments, animal feeds, feed ingredients, feed supplements, feed additives, base mixes, concentrates, special feed nutrient preparations and other feed products (Administrative Order No.12, Series of 2007). Some of the salient points are as follows:

Trade mark applicants occasionally use ploys to avoid rejections from the Patent Office. In this case, the applicant filed an application for a design trade mark including a word element. The trade mark application according to the applicant was filed for a designation which consisted of a still-life including various meat products, pepper bowl and vegetable greens arranged in an artistic manner. Below this artistic piece there was an inscription in the Russian alphabet «» (meaning Meat Row). The inscription was made in lettering which, though understandable by a Russian, was in a peculiar script which is vaguely reminiscent of old Russian writing. The first letter has the shape of an old Russian helmet which in turn perhaps emphasizes in the eyes of the applicant the long-standing traditions of the company. The second word contains a letter that was discarded in the October Revolution of 1917.

Filing and maintenance fees have been reintroduced on Italian patents, utility models and designs as from January 1 2007. The amounts to be paid and the applicable rules have been determined by a decree which has just been published in the Official Gazette which entered into force on April 21 2007.

In a recent decision (3Ni-42/04) the German Federal Patent Court has revoked the German patent DE 19756864 relating to neuronal precursor cells derived from embryonic stem (ES) cells insofar as it concerns cells that descend from ES cells prepared from human embryos.

During a request for a declaration of partial nullity of a supplementary protection certificate (SPC), the Nullity Department of the Austrian Patent Office had to decide whether stating a wrong authorization to place a product on the market in the Community (EU/EEA) as a medicinal product would be a ground to declare partial nullity of an SPC insofar as the duration of the granted SPC extends beyond the date calculated by using the correct first marketing authorization.

Trade mark owners are increasingly frustrated at having to police online auction websites to prevent sales of fakes. In an open letter to eBay, one IP lawyer demands action. Ray Black

On April 5 2007, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate jointly issued the Interpretation of Several Issues Relating to Specific Application of Law to the Treatment of Criminal Cases of Intellectual Property Infringement No. 2 which came into force on the same day. This Interpretation aims to further strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in China, in particular copyright, via criminal means. The previous interpretation on these issues was the No. 1 Interpretation which came into force on December 22 2004.