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Last year the Swedish Customs Service made more interventions against counterfeits than ever before. More than 280,000 items with a market value of some SEK127 million ($17.5 million) were seized. This is good news for trade mark owners and owners of other forms of IP. However, it must be assumed that only a tiny fraction of counterfeit goods are being detected and there is much to suggest that the importation of counterfeit goods will continue to increase and reach new, record-high levels. So the Swedish authorities are now devoting ever-increasing resources to hunting down counterfeiters.

Following the ECJ's decisions in Kit Kat, Thomson Life and Picaro, Carles Prat asks: is likelihood of confusion taking a break? Further clarification may come in the pending Opel case

Awareness of commercial opportunities is prompting celebrities and sports stars to take action over use of their names - but where is the boundary between fair use and exploitation? Jonathan Moskin reviews recent cases on the right of publicity in the US

Meir Perez Pugatch introduces a project organized jointly by MIP and the Stockholm Network, in association with Progress & Freedom Foundation, to assess the level of IP protection available for the IT industry in the world's major markets

The Korean National Assembly recently made amendments to the Patent Act and the Utility Model Act, which came into effect on March 3 2006. The amendments make three specific changes that will immediately benefit applicants filing in Korea.

The Australian Parliament has recently introduced the Intellectual Property Laws Amendments Bill 2006 to amend and revise Australian IP laws. The major changes are in the areas of patents and trade marks. These changes are discussed separately below.

If you discover someone is trying to register a similar mark to your own in Australia, but you have not protected your own rights, all is not lost. Anna Cormack and Shyama Jayaswal explain how international trade mark owners can rely on their mark's reputation to prevent the registration of a similar trade mark

Growing demand for highly skilled employees in China means high staff turnover and the risk that your company's IP could end up in your competitors' hands. Connie Carnabuci explains how well-drafted employment agreements could protect you

Trade mark owners who applied for .eu domain names during the sunrise period should know whether they have successfully obtained their desired domains before the end of this month.

In order to protect their valuable brands from infringement and dilution, American companies often engage in a diligent monitoring of the marketplace for third party uses of marks that may be confusingly similar to their brands. These monitoring programmes typically include a review of every domain name registration which incorporates a formative of the company's particular trade mark. Aggressive trade mark owners will take enforcement measures against third party owners of domain names incorporating formatives of the mark at issue. These aggressive tactics can often lead the trade mark owner into conflict with a foreign entity using the identical mark and owning a domain name registration which incorporates such mark.