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The Act transposing the European Directive on the legal protection of designs (98/71/EC of October 13 1998) to national Spanish law entered into force on July 9 2003.

The Intellectual Property Office Of Singapore has recently issued a consultation paper that proposed a PCT national phase track for national phase entry applications in Singapore. The proposed track entails revisions to existing search and examination timelines and grant fee deadlines for these patent applications.

The legal provisions regarding actions to cancel a trade mark are contained in Article 48 of Law 84/1998 concerning trade marks and geographical indications, specifying that "any interested person" can request a trade mark cancellation if:

New Zealand's Supreme Court was established in 2003 and replaces the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as New Zealand's highest court. The Supreme Court recently heard its first intellectual property case – Peterson Portable Sawing Systems Ltd (in LIQ) & Anor v Lucas & Anor (SC, 30/8/2006; Elias CJ, Gault, Keith, Blanchard & Tipping JJ, SC 14/2005; [2006] NZ SC 20.

A group of anti-counterfeit offices (Desks) will be established in nine non-EU countries within the next couple of months, thanks to a recent agreement between the Italian Ministry of Productive Activities and the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE).

With the impending free trade agreement negotiations with the US, the Malaysian government appears to be making new moves to strengthen intellectual property rights enforcement. Specialized IP courts are proposed and the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry has also proposed that the copyright laws be amended to prosecute building owners with the offence of allowing their premises to be used for storing, selling or distributing counterfeit materials.

With the implementation of the European Directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights (2004/48/EC, April 29 2004), the enforcement landscape will become rather different.

The Indian courts, as well as granting permanent injunctions and general damages that are compensatory in nature, also grant punitive damages, which aim to be a deterrent. Punitive damages were granted in Time Incorporated v Lokesh Srivastava & Anr (2005 (30) PTC 3 (Del)), where the court held that punitive damages were founded on the philosophy of corrective justice and so must be awarded to show wrongdoers that the law does not take a breach merely as a matter between rival parties but is concerned about those who are not party to the proceedings but suffer on account of the breach.

Photos and reports from the INTA Annual Meeting held in Toronto, Canada last month.

On April 18 2006 the Beijing People's High Court upheld the decision of the lower Court in holding the owner of the Silk Road Market in Beijing to be infringing the trade marks of LV, Chanel, Prada, Gucci and Burberry by providing conveniences to the stores operating there and selling counterfeit goods involving these brands.