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Even the European Commission admits that the Enforcement Directive is "complicated". Maybe that explains why many member states are struggling to meet the implementation deadline at the end of this month. The Directive promises to rewrite national civil procedural codes on IP rights to provide uniform enforcement across the EU. Stéphanie Bodoni investigates how it will achieve this

Stéphanie Bodoni, London

The Ghanaian Trade Marks Act, which came into force on January 1 2004, introduced clear and effective provisions for trade mark protection. The law makes it possible to register service marks, recognizes well-known trade marks and provides for comprehensive civil and criminal remedies against counterfeiting.

Stéphanie Bodoni, London

The search for prior art is a key component of the patent prosecution process, but it can often be time-consuming and costly. The US Patent Office issued 382,139 patents in 2004 alone, and as more and more patents are being filed, the need for accurate and effective prior art searching becomes even more essential. Patent offices in most major IP jurisdictions will perform patent searches. However companies are still choosing to scour patent office records, trade journals and patent databases themselves, to verify that no identical, similar or partially similar patents already exist. Although there is no affirmative duty to conduct a prior art search before filing a patent application, inventors and their attorneys are required to submit any prior art that they are aware of. A comprehensive search can therefore help support not only a patent application, but also licence negotiations, re-examinations and litigation further down the line. After all, an issued patent will stand up better in court with prior art to substantiate it.

The Russian legislators, when drafting the Patent Law, always sought to make the law as inventor-friendly as possible and to provide the widest possible scope of subject matter that could be protected. Much has been taken from the experience of other countries. Perhaps they went too far.

On January 25 2006, the Mexican Law of Industrial Property (LIP) was amended concerning the legal framework of franchises in Mexico to incorporate a new infringing cause based on the unauthorized use by a third party of the image of a product, best known as trade dress (Article 213 XXVI LIP).

Stéphanie Bodoni, London

Walter Maiwald and Volker Hamm explain how, thanks to changes in the courts and the EU enforcement directive, Germany has ceased to be a paradise for patent infringers and become an upholder of patent rights

Emma Barraclough, Hong Kong