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Katie Kuiydong Lee and Peter K Paik review the standards of patentability for selection inventions in Korea in the light of recent court decisions

A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam - who received the world's first recorded patent in 1449

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has affirmed the high threshold that applies to three-dimensional trade marks in Europe, after rejecting two attempts by the maker of Werther's Original sweets to obtain a Community trade mark for the shape of the sweets and their wrapper.

The Canon ink cartridge case examines how the exhaustion theory should be applied to recycled products. Yoshinari Kishimoto of Sughrue Mion outlines the case and compares Japan's approach to that of the US

James Nurton, London

Justine Henin-Hardenne wears adidas Tennis players at Wimbledon and the US Open can wear clothes featuring the distinctive adidas three-stripes design, thanks to an injunction granted by an English High Court judge last month.

It is a cruel blow to succeed in both lower courts but to fail at the final hurdle. That is the fate that befell parties in two recent New Zealand cases, interestingly at the hands of two different courts, as New Zealand completes the transition from the old to the new.

Generic manufacturers operating in Ireland will welcome the recent introduction of legislation which enables them to conduct necessary pre-approval experiments without infringing the patent rights of the original manufacturer. The exemption is contained in new Irish regulations in the form of the European Communities (Limitation of Effect of Patent) Regulations, 2006 (the Irish Regulations) which implement certain sections of Directive 2004/27/EC (with respect to medicinal products for human use) and Directive 2004/28/EC (with respect to veterinary medicinal products).

On April 28 2006 the EU Council adopted a Regulation on the compulsory licensing of patents and supplementary protection certificates (SPCs). The Regulation establishes a procedure for the grant of licences covering all acts necessary for the purpose of manufacturing pharmaceutical products and exporting them to (broadly) developing and least developed countries affected by public health problems.

In the wake of the Law on Advertising, which came into force on July 1 2006, the State Duma adopted some changes to the Criminal Procedure Code. The Criminal Code already contains provisions for the punishment of IP infringers and in past years those sanctions have been made harder. Now the new procedure makes it easier for law enforcement bodies to deal with infringement cases in the field of copyright. At present, only public prosecutors are empowered to initiate criminal cases against infringers according to Section 146 of the Criminal Code. The new provision of the Criminal Procedure Code empowers the police to prosecute wrongdoers in copyright matters. A criminal case according to Section 146 may be initiated if the damage to the copyright owner is more than R50,000 ($2,000). A crime of this calibre shall be punished by imprisonment of up to five years.