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An understanding of copyright developments has become vital for all involved in digital and networking technology. Yuko Noguchi of Mori Hamada & Matsumoto analyzes recent legal changes and court decisions in this area, and compares Japanese and US practice

Justine Henin-Hardenne wears adidas Tennis players at Wimbledon and the US Open can wear clothes featuring the distinctive adidas three-stripes design, thanks to an injunction granted by an English High Court judge last month.

The Mexican Law of Industrial Property (LIP) provides that use of a registered trade mark inures to the benefit of a registration only if it is effected directly by the registrant or by a recorded licensee.

It is a cruel blow to succeed in both lower courts but to fail at the final hurdle. That is the fate that befell parties in two recent New Zealand cases, interestingly at the hands of two different courts, as New Zealand completes the transition from the old to the new.

The Korean Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling on April 27 2006, establishing a list of factors that must now be considered when calculating the reasonable royalty rate in all patent infringement cases.

Generic manufacturers operating in Ireland will welcome the recent introduction of legislation which enables them to conduct necessary pre-approval experiments without infringing the patent rights of the original manufacturer. The exemption is contained in new Irish regulations in the form of the European Communities (Limitation of Effect of Patent) Regulations, 2006 (the Irish Regulations) which implement certain sections of Directive 2004/27/EC (with respect to medicinal products for human use) and Directive 2004/28/EC (with respect to veterinary medicinal products).

On April 26 the European Commission responsible for Justice, Safety and Liberty presented a proposal for a directive aimed at strengthening the fight against counterfeits.

The hedge fund industry has become big business in recent years and funds have tried to distinguish themselves for investors by choosing unique names to serve as source identifiers for the particular financial services they offer. As the hedge fund industry expands, financial service providers doing business in the United States offering investment opportunities often come into conflict with similar companies domiciled overseas using confusingly similar names. However, the unique regulations that apply to the hedge fund industry may, under certain circumstances, alter the traditional trade mark analysis applied when a trade mark dispute arises.

On May 29 2006, the State Council of China issued the Regulations on Protection of Rights of Communication Via the Information Network that will come into effect on July 1 2006. The Regulations are made in light of the WIPO Copyright Treaty 1996 and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty 1996 in relation to the provisions relating to the communication or distribution of the relevant copyright works using wire or wireless means.

In the wake of the Law on Advertising, which came into force on July 1 2006, the State Duma adopted some changes to the Criminal Procedure Code. The Criminal Code already contains provisions for the punishment of IP infringers and in past years those sanctions have been made harder. Now the new procedure makes it easier for law enforcement bodies to deal with infringement cases in the field of copyright. At present, only public prosecutors are empowered to initiate criminal cases against infringers according to Section 146 of the Criminal Code. The new provision of the Criminal Procedure Code empowers the police to prosecute wrongdoers in copyright matters. A criminal case according to Section 146 may be initiated if the damage to the copyright owner is more than R50,000 ($2,000). A crime of this calibre shall be punished by imprisonment of up to five years.