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The New Zealand government is proposing significant amendments to the Copyright Act 1994 (the Act) with the Copyright (New Technologies and Performer's Rights) Amendment Bill (the Bill).

In the case of SAP (M) Sdn Bhd & Anor v I World HRM Net Sdn Bhd [2006] 2 MLJ 678 an application for an interlocutory injunction was made by SAP, the German software company, and its local exclusive distributor after they had sued the defendants for copyright infringement. The defendants had an individual end user licence agreement for the SAP R/3 software. The plaintiffs had alleged that the defendants had breached the licence agreement by providing service bureau applications to third parties without the plaintiffs' consent and by reproducing and downloading the software on computers/servers of third parties.

Before the Linkage Regulation in Mexico, the health authorities granted marketing authorizations for pharmaceuticals when the applicant complied with the regulatory requirements, without reviewing possible violations of patent rights. In short, marketing authorizations granted in the past for patented pharmaceutical products to non-authorized third parties were government authorizations to infringe patents.

The German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) recently issued a decision (Haftetikett), which significantly increases the legal burden on an employer to effectively claim a patent right originating from an employee's invention.

An Italian court recently issued a long-awaited decision in which it recognized copyright protection for designs (a chair and a lamp). This is a landmark decision.

In last five years, the Indian parliament has amended the patent law twice. Despite the government's efforts to make the patent law compliant with the TRIPs Agreement, the international community's qualms about India's patent law remains unchanged. The debate on TRIPs compliance is heating up again since the publication of a report on various patent law issues by a government-appointed panel of experts.

On December 30 2006, the Supreme People's Court issued the Explanation on Several Issues on the Application of Law in Adjudicating Civil Unfair Competition Cases. It contains important interpretations of various terms used in China's Anti-Unfair Competition Law. The Explanations came into effect on February 1 2007.

Draft regulations that will allow stem cell research in South Africa have recently been published for public comment In addition to research on stem cells, the draft regulations also regulate research on human DNA, RNA, cultured cells, fibroblasts, blastomeres, polar bodies, embryos, embryonic tissue and small tissue biopsies.

Emma Barraclough, London

Shahnaz Mahmud, New York