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According to the Romanian provisions, a trade mark registration can be cancelled if, within a continuous period of five years, the mark has not been put to genuine use on the Romanian territory in connection with the goods or services in respect of which it is registered, and there are no proper reasons for non-use. Not using the trade mark for an uninterrupted five-year period implies that the trade mark is no longer capable of fulfilling one of its basic functions: to differentiate the goods and services of a natural or legal person from those of other natural or legal persons. Thanks to the non-use, the trade mark does not allow the consumers to easily and quickly choose a verified product, which earned a reputation, the competition function no longer being fulfilled.

The Japanese government has introduced a regional collective trade mark system to boost the value of the country's agricultural exports. John Tessensohn and Shusaku Yamamoto explain how it will work and who will benefit

The Singapore Court of Appeal recently overruled a High Court decision upholding the registration of the trade mark NIKE, which had been registered by a Spanish company, Campomar.

Italy has ratified Directive 98/44/EC on the protection of biotechnological inventions, aimed at harmonizing the laws of the member states to promote investment in the field of biotechnology and avoid barriers to trade.

Under German law an invention may be protected simultaneously by a granted patent and a registered utility model.

The Measures on Protection of IPR at Exhibitions (the Measures) were jointly promulgated by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), State Administration of Industry & Commerce (SAIC), State Copyright Bureau (SCB) and the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) (collectively the IP authorities) on January 10 2006. They took effect on March 1 2006. By strengthening protection of IP, China hopes to promote the healthy development of the exhibition industry.

The Paul Manufacturing Co Case (2006 (32) PTC 285 (Del) came up before the Delhi High Court by way of a writ petition under Article 226 of the Indian constitution. The petitioner's prayer was to issue a writ of certiorari or a direction to quash the trade mark registration No 1280913 granted under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 by the Registrar of Trade Marks. The usual procedure is that the Trade Marks Registrar's decisions and orders are appealed to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (the IPAB). In this case too, the petitioner filed a rectification application at the IPAB. However, interestingly, the IPAB has been dysfunctional for several months because of the delay in appointing a technical member. The petitioner therefore contended that the IPAB was not functioning and that the High Court had extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 to issue a certiorari to quash the order granting the trade mark registration.

Following two reviews of Australia's intellectual property legislation, the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill 2006 was introduced into the Australian Parliament on March 30 2006. If passed in its present form, the Bill will make a number of changes to Australia's legislation, particularly to the Trade Marks Act 1995 and the Patents Act 1990.

The first MIP Awards Dinner, held at Claridge's in London on March 29, recognized the firms of the year in more than 30 categories, as well as the in-house team of the year and the lifetime achievement

News and photos from MIP's third annual Brand Management Forum, featuring leading in-house counsel and trade mark regulators, held in London at the end of March