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Following major changes to examination standards for biotech patents in the US, applicants must pay greater attention to the utility, written description and enablement requirements. John P Isacson reveals how to get what you want into your patents

Venture capitalists are increasingly critical of a company's IP strategy and want better IP valuations when making investment decisions, a study of the London market has found.

Software pirates have undermined the security features of Microsoft's latest brainchild and have peddled counterfeit versions of the Windows XP operating system even before its official launch.

Membership of the global trade body is another boost to IP protection in China. But how soon the boost will come is uncertain. Things will get better but not immediately. Ralph Cunningham reports

IP owners in Poland have several options to tackle infringement at first instance, explains Wojciech Wlodarczyk of Patpol in Warsaw

There are grounds under the UK Trade Marks Act (1994, section 3(6)) for refusal or invalidity of registration where a trade mark is applied for in bad faith. The provision derives from the European Trade Marks Harmonization Directive (89/104) and has a counterpart in EU Trade Mark Regulation 40/94 (article 51(1)(b)). Bad faith is not defined and its scope has produced a divide between UK and EU case law over the need for subjective dishonesty on the part of the trade mark applicant (Trillium, First Cancellation Division of OHIM, C000053447/1, March 28 2000).

In Aptix Corp v Quickturn Design Systems, Inc (60 USPQ 2d 1705 (Fed Cir November 5 2001)), two members of a three-judge Federal Circuit panel held that a US patent remains "presumptively valid" and enforceable, despite the admitted blatantly fraudulent conduct of its inventor in seeking its enforcement before a federal district court. The decision is troublesome, because it overrules the contrary Federal Circuit ruling in Fraige v American National Watermattress Co (27 USPQ 2d 1149, 1151, n3 (Fed Cir 1993)) and repudiates a principle considered virtually axiomatic among US lawyers for many years ? that is, that fraud practised in connection with either acquiring or enforcing a patent renders the thus-tainted patent permanently unenforceable. Furthermore, it is difficult to see any legitimate public or private purpose that is served by pronouncing the patent presumptively valid and hence enforceable either by someone other than the original patentee or by the patentee at a later time and in the absence of the offending research notebooks.

In Aptix Corp v Quickturn Design Systems, Inc (60 USPQ 2d 1705 (Fed Cir November 5 2001)), two members of a three-judge Federal Circuit panel held that a US patent remains "presumptively valid" and enforceable, despite the admitted blatantly fraudulent conduct of its inventor in seeking its enforcement before a federal district court. The decision is troublesome, because it overrules the contrary Federal Circuit ruling in Fraige v American National Watermattress Co (27 USPQ 2d 1149, 1151, n3 (Fed Cir 1993)) and repudiates a principle considered virtually axiomatic among US lawyers for many years ? that is, that fraud practised in connection with either acquiring or enforcing a patent renders the thus-tainted patent permanently unenforceable. Furthermore, it is difficult to see any legitimate public or private purpose that is served by pronouncing the patent presumptively valid and hence enforceable either by someone other than the original patentee or by the patentee at a later time and in the absence of the offending research notebooks.

As the internet has expanded in recent years, it has become more and more important due to the fact that it has revolutionized the communications and now it is a significant marketing tool for large and small businesses.

The recent unreported decision of the Magistrate's Court in Singapore in Highway Video Pte Ltd v Lim Tai Wah; Teng Yock Poh v Lim Tai Wah; Teng Kem Hong v Lim Tai Wah (MA No 203-205 of 2001) involving a known dealer in home videos highlights the concerted move towards stamping out video piracy in Singapore.