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Franchising is one of the more popular modes of going into business in the Philippines, whether small, medium sized, or large. They are easy to set up and the franchised business has a built-in support system, and some goodwill attached to it. Because almost all franchise agreements involve a bundle of intellectual property rights, prior to January 1 1998, registration of this type of agreement was mandatory. After that date, registration became voluntary and enforceable in the Philippines, provided it complied with the provisions of the IP Code. The signatories to the registered agreement are certainly the real parties in interest, but in Pepsico Inc doing business in the name and style Pepsico Restaurants International v Emerald Pizza Inc (GR No 153059) promulgated by the Supreme Court on August 14 2007, the Court declared that Pepsico Inc, who was not a party to the franchise agreement, was a real party in interest. The case facts are as follows:

This year has seen Malaysia experience a positive whirlwind as far as IP rights are concerned. The deployment of specialist tracking dogs to combat software piracy, relentless raids conducted by authorities in their quest to curb piracy, the Prime Minister's declaration of a national IP day on April 27 2007; these are among the very many developments that bear testimony to Malaysia's serious approach to the protection and enforcement of IP rights.

Protection for IP rights in the Dominican Republic is much better than it used to be, thanks to a reorganized registry, effective Customs and efficient courts. Wendy Diaz discusses the latest developments and explains how they can help rights owners

The Croatian Parliament has enacted amendments to the Trade Mark Law, some of which went into effect on July 31 2007.

In the Kenya High Court case Mohan Meakin Ltd v Mohan Meakin (Kenya) Ltd and London Distillers Kenya) Ltd, the Indian brewing and distillery giant seeks to restrain the defendants from using and/or asserting ownership of the trade marks Old Monk and Meakin Rum following disposal of the plaintiff's shares in the first defendant in 2001.

The Canadian Trade-marks Office has issued a Practice Notice, effective August 15 2007, stating that the Registrar will "generally no longer require an applicant for registration of a trade-mark to enter disclaimers pursuant to section 35 of the" Trade-marks Act. The Office will, however, continue to accept voluntary disclaimers. Any outstanding disclaimer requests can be overcome by referring to the change in disclaimer practice regardless of whether the request was made prior to the effective date of the notice.

James Nurton, London

Law firms and patent and trade mark agencies are reporting record levels of demand from IP clients. For the fourth year, Managing IP has compiled a list of the biggest firms in Asia to see who is growing the fastest

There have been legislative changes in the area of trade marks and two High Court cases which significantly affect IP rights. Trevor Stevens and Raymond Hind of Davies Collison Cave explain what these mean for IP owners

Chow Kit Boey and Leo Kah Mun of the Intellectual Property Academy reveal the important contribution of copyright-based industries to Singapore's economy