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Ever since EU Regulation 1768/92 implemented supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) in the European Union, the unclear wording of various provisions of the Regulation has led to numerous decisions by courts throughout Europe.

On December 14 2006, the Court of First Instance (CFI) upheld that Community trade mark applications representing deer heads with the word "Venado" were confusingly similar to earlier trade marks consisting of a deer's head with a cross surrounded by a halo and the word "Jägermeister".

Our firm has virtually abandoned filing applications on paper. We feel that online filing is safer than paper filing, provided that some sensible precautions are taken.

On December 8 2006 the Administrative Council of the EPO took a further step in the implementation of EPC 2000, which will come into force this year. The Council reviewed and approved the Amendments to the Implementing Regulations to the EPC 2000.

The Supreme Court of the Czech Republic has considered an appeal against decisions of courts of lower instances in the case of the infringement of trade mark rights (8Tdo239/2004).

On January 8 2007, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued a measure which aims to strengthen the value of Chinese brands. By giving local brands a special status, and by promoting and protecting these brands, it hopes to boost the sale and export of local branded goods. As these gain popularity, it also hopes that the competitiveness of Chinese goods as a whole in the world market will increase.

The Patent Appeal Board in Canada recently issued its decision following a hearing at which we challenged the decision of an examiner regarding inter alia the patentability of subject matter. The claims were directed to a system for trading diamonds from remote computer terminals in communication with a host computer, including the use of data structures for presenting diamond characteristics in an orderly and structured manner. The examiner's rejection reflected a trend in Canada of examiners rejecting claims to less than fully tangible inventions, or to what can be loosely called business methods.

The European Directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions 98/44/EC was transformed into national law on June 10 2005. The Austrian Parliament has established a special monitoring committee to manage this transformation. This committee (the Biopatent Monitoring Committee) had the task of monitoring the impact of this transformation into Austrian law on:

Recently, the Full Federal Court prononunced on the operation of the Australian copyright provisions for websites that contain hyperlinks.

Manufacturers of medicinal products are legally obliged to obtain regulatory approval for their product before marketing of that product may begin. However, where different salts, esters, ethers, isomers, complexes or derivatives of a brand (on-patent) drug are made by a generic company, and these differ significantly in properties with regard to safety and/or efficacy when compared to the patented drug, additional clinical data demonstrating the safety and/or efficacy of that generic drug must be submitted by the generic company to the marketing authority.