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IACC Conference, Toronto, Canada, May 3–5.

As a general rule in the UAE, there is no synchronization between the Economic Department and/or the Municipalities (which regulate the grant of trade licences and approval of trade names in the different Emirates) and the Trade Mark Registry in terms of clearing the trade names against the Trade Marks Registry's database prior to granting approvals. As a result, trade marks often compete with company names as identifiers of the origin of goods and services. A common belief is that these signs confirm similar rights to the owner or registrant.

The Swedish Supreme Court has recently (February 1 2006) delivered a judgment in an interesting trade mark case, which concerns how and when a registered trade mark can be cancelled for non-use, and in particular the date from which the period of non-use of a trade mark must be calculated.

The growth in applications has raised more questions about the qualification requirements for patent attorneys in Turkey. Only patent attorneys are statutorily allowed to represent foreign applicants with regard to patents before the Turkish Patent Institute (TPI).

On March 1 2006, US pharmaceutical company Pfizer sued the Philippine International Trading Corp (PITC) and the Bureau of Food And Drugs (BFAD) before the Regional Trial Court of Makati Branch 61. It accused them of infringing its patent for its anti-hypertension drug Norvasc (which has the generic name amlodipine besylate), after the PITC imported some samples of a similar drug sold by Pfizer in India (under the brand name Amlogard) and submitted the samples to the BFAD for testing and product registration. Pfizer's Philippine patent expires in June 2007. The PITC filed a Ps1.5 million ($30,000) countersuit against Pfizer, claiming that the US company was attempting to stop the government from importing cheap medicine.

Licence agreements in Malaysia are generally governed by the Malaysian Trade Marks Act 1976 and the Contracts Act 1950. Nevertheless, the term "licence" is not expressed in the Trade Marks Act 1976. Instead the licensee is referred to as a "registered user".

The Mexican Patent Office has finally implemented internal examining guidelines that substantially mirror those of the European Patent Office for the examination of computer software-implemented inventions. The emphasis now to be placed by Mexican examiners examining computer software-implemented inventions is on the technical characteristics that have a technical effect rather than on the subject matter of the invention.

On April 3 2006 the UK Patent Office took the lead in promoting alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in Intellectual Property disputes by being the first patent and trade mark office anywhere in the world to set up a formal commercial mediation service. The initiative involves the creation of a new Mediation Service Team within the Patent Office who are able to mediate IP disputes referred to them from Patent Office hearings, the Courts or the parties themselves. To raise awareness of the new service the Patent Office has issued Guidance Notes on its website and is producing a range of literature aimed at encouraging parties to consider mediation as an alternative to litigation.

José Antonio Hernández and Patricia Koch of Herrero & Asociados review how courts have dealt with preliminary injunctions in Spain and provide some tips on what IP rights owners need to prove in order to obtain one

Stéphanie Bodoni speaks to OHIM's new director of IP policy, Vincent O'Reilly, about OHIM trade mark practice, examination guidelines and the implementation of EU case law