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On August 29 2006, the Vietnamese government promulgated Decree 88/2006/ND-CP on Business Registration. Decree 88 is notable in regard to IP because it contains provisions on trade names. In Vietnam, it is common for many companies to have the same name and some local companies have adopted well-known foreign trade marks as part of their trade name. Specifically, Decree 88 addresses these problems by providing as follows:

One of the most frequent obstacles that the prosecution of a Mexican trade mark application has to confront is that it may be objected to by the examiner for being descriptive or not sufficiently distinctive to be registered as a trade mark, or that it is indicative of the goods or services that it intends to protect. These types of objection are included in the Mexican Industrial Property Law; however the number of official actions objecting to trade marks for these reasons has notoriously increased recently.

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.

Emma Barraclough, London

India has made a series of far-reaching changes to its patent law framework. Shanti Kumar, Archana Shanker and Neeti Wilson of Anand and Anand explain the most important developments

Robert Sanders, an IP Academy research scholar and partner with Global IP Services LLP, explains how the Academy's Global Forum on Intellectual Property has encouraged mutual respect and understanding

Bo Heiden of the Center for Intellectual Property in Gothenburg, Sweden reviews Little Blues: How to Build a Culture of Intellectual Property Within a Small Technology Company by E André Carter and Raymond Millien

Thailand has recently strengthened its IP enforcement regime, boosting Customs' powers and training specialist criminal investigators. But officials still need the cooperation of brand owners, say Edward A Madden and Edward J Kelly of Tilleke & Gibbins International Ltd