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One of the consequences of the separation of Serbia and Montenegro is the overhaul of the domain name system in the two countries. Vesna Gakovic and Kathryn Szymczyk explain why the new rules are more welcoming for international applicants

Manufacturers of medicinal products are legally obliged to obtain regulatory approval for their product before marketing of that product may begin. However, where different salts, esters, ethers, isomers, complexes or derivatives of a brand (on-patent) drug are made by a generic company, and these differ significantly in properties with regard to safety and/or efficacy when compared to the patented drug, additional clinical data demonstrating the safety and/or efficacy of that generic drug must be submitted by the generic company to the marketing authority.

Since 2003, when the Mexican Linkage Regulation was enacted, the Mexican Patent Office, due to a narrow interpretation, has been reluctant to include in the Linkage Gazette patents that cover pharmaceutical compositions and medical use patents.

In December 2006 the Italian government definitively reintroduced filing fees and annuity fees on patents for industrial inventions and for utility models as well as fees on the registration of designs.

Our firm has virtually abandoned filing applications on paper. We feel that online filing is safer than paper filing, provided that some sensible precautions are taken.

Bilateral trade between India and the US has increased exponentially over the past two decades, and gathered a full head of steam last year. In March 2006, US president Bush visited India for a meeting with prime minister Manmohan Singh on increased global partnership between the two nations. This was well received and very successful. This meeting was followed by meetings of the CEO Forum, the Trade Policy Forum and the Commercial Dialogue and High Technology Group, a clear indication of the two countries' desire to work together.

The Supreme Court of the Czech Republic has considered an appeal against decisions of courts of lower instances in the case of the infringement of trade mark rights (8Tdo239/2004).

The Patent Appeal Board in Canada recently issued its decision following a hearing at which we challenged the decision of an examiner regarding inter alia the patentability of subject matter. The claims were directed to a system for trading diamonds from remote computer terminals in communication with a host computer, including the use of data structures for presenting diamond characteristics in an orderly and structured manner. The examiner's rejection reflected a trend in Canada of examiners rejecting claims to less than fully tangible inventions, or to what can be loosely called business methods.

Article 15 of the TRIPs Agreement provides that combinations of colours – among other kinds of signs – can be registered as trade marks. Article 1 of the Argentine Trade Mark Act 22,362 specifically requires that combinations of colours can be registered as trade marks provided they are applied in a fixed place on products or containers. Article 2 says that the natural or inherent colour of the products or a single colour applied on them cannot be considered to be a trade mark.

Acacia Technologies: an aggressive patent troll that feeds off the litigation fears of large corporations, or the champion of small technology companies who might not know how to go about enforcing their patents? Shahnaz Mahmud weighs up the evidence