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English courts are known for being thorough, but that can be expensive for litigants. Brian Whitehead, Stuart Jackson and Richard Kempner examine ways you can reduce the costs

How you prosecute a patent can affect how enforceable the right is. Blayne Peacock and Tim Watkin explain why legal changes in Singapore could mean that applicants face unexpected consequences if they try to patent on the cheap in one of Asia's burgeoning R&D centres

Patent protection for a new dosage regime of a known drug is now available in New Zealand after a decision by the assistant commissioner of patents

Europe's highest court has said it favours a "broad definition" of comparative advertising, which could lead to more adverts falling within the scope of an EU directive regulating the practice

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.

Irish writers and performers have welcomed a recent decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) which concerned Commission proceedings against Ireland in respect of Directive 92/100/EEC of November 19 1992 on rental rights and lending rights and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property. In Commission v Ireland, C-175-05, the ECJ held that Irish copyright legislation which exempted all categories of public lending establishments from paying royalties to authors and performers breached Ireland's obligations under the directive. Similar Commission proceedings had also been brought against Spain (which intervened on behalf of Ireland), Portugal and Belgium.

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.

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.

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.