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A brand's identity is comprised of more than just its name or logo, and includes all the associations that consumers attach to the brand. Studies demonstrate that consumer knowledge of a brand's identity will influence how they evaluate extensions of that brand into different product categories. By Andrew Lockhart and Eugene Ford of Shelston IP

Clearing a new trade mark in the expanded EU can be a tiresome and costly task for in-house trade mark counsel. Daan Teeuwissen and Ellen Gevers of Knijff have found one solution which they say will make brand owners' lives easier

The increased visibility of IP in today's market has upped the value attached to companies' IP rights, increasing also the responsibilities of intellectual asset managers. Michael Leathes of British American Tobacco considers whether their mindsets and tools keep pace with the changing demands

What is our brand and what makes it successful? That is the key question brand owners and company brand managers have to answer before embarking on any further tasks. The answer is not straightforward. A brand is more than just a trade mark or a logo or a slogan - it is a combination of all these and more, including colours, symbols, signs and shapes. A brand is all that makes a company and its products stand out in the eye of the consumer and what leads him or her to prefer one company's products over that of another.

On January 1 2005, Anne Gundelfinger, associate general counsel of Intel, took over as the new president of INTA. She spoke to Stéphanie Bodoni about her priorities for the next year, the challenges facing brand owners, and what changes are looming in the trade mark world

Shampoo, washing powder, chewing gum, mineral water, razors, shoe polish, vodka, tea bags... items on your regular shopping list? Perhaps, but in 2005 they are also high on another list: favourite output from today's counterfeiting industry. Marie Pattullo, of the European Brands Association AIM, reports

Sam Mamudi, New York

Harry Potter: available from Rmb22 ($2.65) US movie studio Warner Bros is to cut DVD prices and bring forward release dates in an attempt to cut piracy levels in China.

US: The Senate passed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, a law which criminalizes the recording of films in movie theatres and the posting of unreleased films and music on the internet. A similar bill failed to pass last year after a dispute concerning an unrelated bill. US: Microsoft won the latest round in its battle against a $521 million patent infringement award, after the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit largely overturned a ruling of the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The Federal Circuit's decision, challenged the lower court's finding that a patent owned by the University of California, and licensed exclusively to Eolas, was valid and infringed by Microsoft. The case was remanded back to the district court for further argument. US: USPTO director Jon Dudas said that the agency was launching a series of reforms that will speed up patent prosecution and save applicants about $30 million a year. The reforms have three key features: firstly, applicants can now request an appeal conference to determine the merits of their appeal against a patent rejection before having to file a Notice of Appeal and an appeal brief; secondly, changes to the reexamination procedure will see three-person examiner panels replace a single panellist; and Dudas promised that there would be more detail in published USPTO data. US: The University of California led all US academic institutions in receiving the most patents from the USPTO in 2004. This was the 11th consecutive year that the University of California has topped the patent rankings (see below). Top patenting US universities (2004) Rank Number of patents University (Rank 2003) Number of

Stéphanie Bodoni, London