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Russian patent law does not allow the co-existence of an invention patent and a utility model patent if their priorities coincide. If such parallel applications have been filed the applicant has to choose which patent he wants to have. If a utility model patent has been granted and an invention patent has later been granted the earlier issued patent is automatically cancelled.

In a development that could have far reaching consequences, the Indian Patent Office ruled against Novartis' patent application for Gleevec, an anti-cancer drug. This decision marks the beginning of judicial scrutiny of India's new product patent law. If the Indian Patent Office fails to analyze the intricate provisions of law more carefully, as in this case, research-based pharmaceutical companies may stay away from the Indian market.

China's CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Centre) Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy has been superseded by a new policy that came into force on March 17 2006. There are a number of important changes.

"2P or not 2P" was scribbled in a coin phone box in the UK in the 1990s and has recently been the title of an article in The Guardian on whether or not the 1p and 2p coins should be taken out of circulation in the UK. While having a different connotation, the same question can equally be asked about the IP rights for plants in Europe. The two types of IP rights for plants which co-exist in Europe, patents and plant variety rights (PVR), overlap in their scope of protection to a considerable extent, although the original intention had been to keep these two Ps separate.

Moratoriums on commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in Australia should be lifted, according to a report prepared by the Agriculture and Food Policy Reference Group (AFPRG) and submitted to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in February 2006.

Photos, news and reports from the first IPTEC technology transfer event and conference, held in Cannes in February.

India's law on software patents has undergone a series of changes over the past five years, leaving applicants uncertain about the protection they can get for their computer programs in one of the world's most dynamic IT markets. Arun Singh Negi and Vasundhara Naik outline the government's latest thinking

How easily patents are granted and how well the overall patent system works are questions addressed by several reviews at the moment, one of them being the Gowers Review in the UK. Stephen Bennett and Daniel Brook ask whether the inventive step requirement is part of the problem in a system that produces a growing number of questionable patents

A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam - who received the world's first recorded patent in 1449

James Nurton, London