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The Intellectual Property Office Of Singapore has recently issued a consultation paper that proposed a PCT national phase track for national phase entry applications in Singapore. The proposed track entails revisions to existing search and examination timelines and grant fee deadlines for these patent applications.

With the impending free trade agreement negotiations with the US, the Malaysian government appears to be making new moves to strengthen intellectual property rights enforcement. Specialized IP courts are proposed and the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry has also proposed that the copyright laws be amended to prosecute building owners with the offence of allowing their premises to be used for storing, selling or distributing counterfeit materials.

New Zealand's Supreme Court was established in 2003 and replaces the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as New Zealand's highest court. The Supreme Court recently heard its first intellectual property case – Peterson Portable Sawing Systems Ltd (in LIQ) & Anor v Lucas & Anor (SC, 30/8/2006; Elias CJ, Gault, Keith, Blanchard & Tipping JJ, SC 14/2005; [2006] NZ SC 20.

With the implementation of the European Directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights (2004/48/EC, April 29 2004), the enforcement landscape will become rather different.

Photos and reports from the INTA Annual Meeting held in Toronto, Canada last month.

Calculating damages in trade secrets cases can be more difficult than in cases involving other IP rights. Marc J Pensabene and Christopher E Loh consider strategies for plaintiffs and defendants and, overleaf, provide a guide to how contracts can help you avoid liability

In its ruling in eBay v MercExchange, the US Supreme Court seems to have found a comfortable middle ground that keeps everyone happy. But, as James Nurton reports, some fear it will lead to inconsistency in the courts

The town of Barcelona has won its challenge to the registration of Barcelona.eu as a domain name.

Internet: The latest top-level domain name, .mobi, launched on May 22 with a sunrise period for rights owners in the mobile telecoms industry. This will be followed by a sunrise period for IP rights owners, starting on June 12 and lasting until August 21. The .mobi registry is Mobile Top Level Domain Ltd in Dublin, Ireland, which was set up by companies including Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung and Vodafone. Dot-mobi is the first TLD that will be tailored to mobile devices: owners of .mobi domain names have to comply with rules that make their content easily accessible on phones, personal digital assistants and other gadgets.

Maintaining an IP portfolio can be a costly exercise, particularly where patents and trade marks are concerned. However, domain names can generate tangible financial rewards without having to cost the earth. Often the registration of a URL can prove to be one of the most valuable investments a company can make.