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The decision by the United States Trade Representative to launch two cases against China at the WTO after accusing the country of failing to comply with its enforcement obligations under the TRIPs Agreement has dominated coverage of IP in China over the past 12 months. In October last year USPTO Commissioner Jon Dudas admitted the case had hurt ties with China, saying "we've seen increased cooperation in some areas but we've seen cooperation in other areas slow". Elsewhere, a high-profile spat between French food maker Danone and Chinese drinks maker and joint venture partner Wahaha over the rights to the Wahaha brand hit the headlines.

Eileen McDermott, New York and Eklavya Gupte, London

In the first of a series of interviews with in-house counsel, Managing IP spoke to Eric Notegen, head of the global patent function at F Hoffmann-La Roche, about his long career at the company, patent reform in the US and the future of the pharmaceutical industry worldwide. By Eklavya Gupte

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The increase in globalization over the past few years has heightened the importance of intellectual property laws throughout the Central American and Caribbean region, leading to the modernization of the legal framework and providing greater protection to IP rights.

The Austrian Supreme Court had found in several judgments that a trade mark owner is entitled to the cancellation of a domain registration that infringed the rights of the trade mark owner. The Supreme Court's reasoning was that the risk of recurring infringement could not be avoided solely by changing the content of the website as the content could easily be changed again. This jurisprudence was heavily criticized on the ground that stopping the infringement does not necessarily require the cancellation of the domain registration.

Weaker trade marks, such as those with a descriptive element, should benefit from a narrower scope of protection than highly distinctive marks, following a ruling in the UK last month

National and regional patent offices in Africa should "embark on intensive capacity building and awareness raising campaigns" and African nations should "enhance their role as custodians of the governance of Africa's indigenous knowledge and traditional artefacts by enforcing protection laws related to IPRs".

Diverging verdicts are confusing IP and trade mark owners but the system is still developing, say Dr Lulin Gao and Dr Singer John Huang of East IP

Recent purchasing trends reflect a general desire among US consumers to "go green" by buying products that can help protect the environment. In order to meet the growing demand in the marketplace for products that do not harm the environment, manufacturers have tried to market and label their products and product packaging as "environmentally friendly".