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With over one billion people, India is one of the world's largest markets for films. This includes both home grown "Bollywood" and Hollywood films. However, both Hollywood and Bollywood complain that piracy, a phenomenon throughout Asia, is cutting into their earnings. Both lose millions of dollars a year due to lax enforcement of copyright laws in India. Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said at a recent Confederation of Indian Industry meeting that the biggest competitor faced by both Hollywood and Bollywood was piracy.

There is no doubt that substantial efforts have been effected in Mexico to improve trade mark protection, such as those contained in the 2005 amendment to the Mexican Industrial Property Law, where the possibility to obtain declarations for well-known and famous trade marks has been established. However, it is worth mentioning the potential advantages of establishing a trade mark opposition procedure (TOP) in Mexico, in order to provide the owners of registered trade marks with a legal action to prevent registration of new trade marks which may conflict with previous acquired rights.

A recent (February 12 2007) judgment of Commercial Court 4 in Barcelona makes an interesting contribution to two issues: imitation and the requirements for imitation to be unlawful.

Managing IP and Finnegan Henderson jointly hosted a roundtable in Beijing to discuss how to develop an enforcement strategy in China

Trade marks reproducing familar words are popular among people, even more so if they allude to sexuality. Any moves around such marks provoke interest: what will come next? The Chamber of Patent Disputes of the Russian PTO recently busied itself with Kamasutra.

On October 26 2007, the Italian Official Gazette published a decree of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (which is in charge of the Italian Patent and Trade Mark Office) indicating – among other issues – its willingness to reach an agreement with the European Patent Office on prior art searches of Italian patent applications.

A recent press statement by the Music Authors' Copyright Protection Berhad (MACP) has taken the Malaysian entertainment industry to task. It announced that hundreds of entertainment outlets around Kuala Lumpur, the nation's capital, would be subject to severe scrutiny if they did not settle their outstanding royalty payments within the given timeframe.

Collections of personal information are assets that can be used to generate economic benefit. However, if not used in accordance with applicable privacy laws, these assets can become liabilities. Businesses operating in Israel that use third party personal information as an asset, or that collect or process third party personal information in the course of business, should note recent amendments to Israel's privacy laws and ensure that their policies and business activities comply with applicable privacy legislation.

A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam - who received the world’s first recorded patent in 1449

The Italian IP system has had its failings in the past, but now things are becoming easier for right holders. Pier Luigi Roncaglia of Società Italiana Brevetti discusses the measures that are helping them out