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Individuals interested in creating an online forum to voice criticism about a particular company's product or service offering often register domain names which incorporate a company's trade mark to be used as so-called gripe sites. These individuals typically claim that their use of a third party's trade mark as part of a domain name constitutes a fair use of that trade mark, thereby creating a legitimate non-commercial interest for the domain name registrant in owning the domain name at issue.

Over the past three years, Turkish national registrations from international trade mark applications under the Madrid Protocol have increased by 30%, reaching 7,750 in 2005.

It is a common refrain in the international business community that India has a poor track record of IP enforcement. However, if a recent decision of the Delhi High Court is anything to go by, weak IP enforcement is a thing of past. This is because the Delhi High Court awarded punitive damages in a copyright infringement case and held that the defendants will not be let off with merely an award of compensatory damages against them.

Malaysia and the US recently wrapped up the second round of negotiations in respect of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries. This round took place in Washington DC. The first round was held from June 12 to 16 in Penang, Malaysia.

On June 12 2006 a new Industrial Property Code came into force in Mozambique. This article focuses on the main changes brought about by the Code in respect of trade marks, and the consequences of counterfeiting and other infringements of various rights.

In Vitakraft-Werke Wührmann & Sohn GmbH & Co KG v Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) the European Court of First Instance (CFI) confirmed OHIM´s ruling denying a likelihood of confusion between the pets marks Vitakraft and Vitacoat.

The Austrian Supreme court recently ruled on the duration of supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) based on so-called old Austrian national patents, which were filed prior to December 1 1984. These patents had a duration of 18 years from the day of laying open to public inspection (and at least 20 years from the date of filing).

Artists' resale right schemes, often also called droit de suite, have been a part of the law of a number of European countries since the 1920s. However, the disparity between those national systems that did recognize a resale right and the lack of a resale right in other member states prompted the European Commission to adopt harmonizing measures in the form of EU Directive 2001/84/EC on the resale rights of authors of original works of art. The object of the Directive is to confer the same benefits on authors/creators of graphic or plastic art, such as pictures, collages, paintings, sculptures and engravings, as other creators of artistic works who benefit from successive exploitations of their works. The Directive was passed on September 27 2001 and member states had until January 1 2006 to transpose it into domestic law.

A number of recent Australian cases have narrowed the ability of traders to claim a monopoly in a pure colour for use as a trade mark.

On January 1 2006 a new obligation law introducing non-material damages in Croatian court procedures came into force. The law for the first time provides legal entities with an opportunity to claim non-material damages based on injury to their personal rights in court procedures.