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Act 29/2006, of July 26, on Guarantees for and Rational Use of Medicinal and Health Products, which supersedes and repeals the former Medicinal Products Act 1990, was published in the Official State Gazette on July 27 2006. The new Act amends Patents Act Article 52.1, which provides for the exceptions to patent rights, that is cases in which a patent is not effective. The wording is:

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) has released guidelines for patent claims covering methods of treatment and Swiss-style claims on its website (www.iponz.govt.nz). They have been issued in an attempt to give applicants some clarity about what may or may not be patentable. In its guidelines, IPONZ has said that each patent application will be considered on its merits and that the guidelines are simply that: guidelines.

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.

The National Copyright Administration of the People's Republic of China (NCAC) has launched a public consultation on the imposition of royalties on Karaoke establishments for use of musical works and music videos in their business. The NCAC has generally approved the centralized collection of royalties by the Music Copyright Society of China () and the China Audio & Video Collective Administration Association (in preparation) (). The proposed tariff is Rmb12 ($1.50) for one room for one day. The consultation will close on September 20 2006.

In the previous issue of Managing Intellectual Property, the implementation of the Bolar exemption in Ireland was discussed. It was stated that the exemption in Ireland only applies to experimental activities for generic drugs, excluding new medicinal products.

In 1993, the European Community and Hungary concluded an agreement on the reciprocal protection and control of the names of wines. In order to protect the Hungarian geographical indication Tokajj as of March 2007 the agreement prohibited the use of the name Tocai for the famous Italian wine produced in the Friuli region, east of Venice.

On February 15 the Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic received comments on the registrability of the published indication Euro Region propag, applied for by a Czech town. The indication was filed in classes 9, 16 and 4 as a colour combined trade mark. The indication is created by the word elements Euro, Region and propag, placed one above another in an oblong field, where the letter O in the work Region is created by a circle of blue stars, corresponding to the symbol of European Community.

Emma Barraclough, London and Brussels

Shahnaz Mahmud, London