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Argentina TRADE MARK PROSECUTION Tier 1 G Breuer Marval, O'Farrell & Mairal Tier 2 De Las Carreras & Chaloupka Hausheer Belgrano & Fernandez Noetinger & Armando Obligado & Cía Richelet & Richelet Sena & Berton Moreno Tier 3 Bruchou, Fernandez Madero, Lombardi & Mitrani Ferrer Reyes, Tellechea & Bouche Pérez Alati, Grondona, Benites, Arntsen & Martinez de Hoz Jr Tier 4 Baker & McKenzie Barbat Clarke Modet Moeller & Co Palacio & Asociados

In October 2006 President Bush signed a landmark US law that IP owners hoped would give famous trade marks greater protection. Six months on, Emma Barraclough assesses whether the new law has lived up to expectations

Thailand has broken three drugs patents within the past four months and is reported to have a longer list of compulsory licence targets in its sights. Peter Ollier explains why pharmaceutical companies are nervous

Emma Barraclough, London

Speaking in Geneva at the launch of a global survey carried out by Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), chairmen and CEOs from multinational companies including Nestlé, Vivendi Universal and Sanofi-Aventis warned that counterfeiting and piracy are among the biggest challenges facing business today.

Emma Barraclough, London

Emma Barraclough, Geneva

Owners of foreign language trade marks need to exercise particular caution when contemplating the expansion of their brands into the United States marketplace. US trade mark law and language issues create certain concerns that specifically relate to the availability of a foreign language mark in the US.

On January 12 2007, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in a long-running dispute between Special Effects and L'Oreal as to whether the same grounds could be adopted in infringement or invalidity proceedings after they had already been unsuccessfully deployed in an opposition action. The High Court had held that once a mark had overcome an opposition and been accepted for registration, the opponent was estopped from attacking the mark a second time either by infringement or invalidation proceedings. This decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal, which held that Registry proceedings did not involve any cause of action which could form the basis of an estoppel and that the Trade Marks Act 1994, which provided for the co-existence of both opposition and invalidation actions, meant that opposition actions were by their nature non-final.

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.