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As part of its bid to enter the WTO, Vietnam has consolidated its confusing maze of IP rules and regulations into a streamlined law that comes into force in the middle of the year. Chris Vale examines what the changes mean for IP owners

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

In the country's latest bid to open up the patent system by offering cheaper, quicker dispute resolution, the UK Patent Office has launched a low-cost opinion service. But, after the first four cases, not everyone is convinced it will solve the problems. James Nurton reports

Music rights owners will be pleased to read that the Irish courts have once again struck a blow to those involved in the illegal uploading of music. In January, Mr Justice Kelly of the Commercial Court, Ireland's new Court that has specialist expertise in IP matters, ordered that the national telecommunications provider and two other internet service providers give details of 49 of their internet subscribers to four record companies for the purposes of bringing copyright infringement proceedings.

India is yet to become fully TRIPs-compliant, at least when it comes to obligations relating to data protection under Article 39.3 of the TRIPs Agreement. Article 39.3 requires India to provide protection against unfair commercial use of undisclosed test data submitted by pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical companies for the purposes of obtaining marketing approval.

Although Europe has a centralized system for filing and granting patents, "European patents" don't exist. Once a European patent application is granted, it falls apart in a bundle of national patents. This makes it difficult for patent holders to enforce their patent rights against an (assumed) infringer active in different countries, as court proceedings should be started in all relevant countries.

Recent decisions in the UK and Australia have shown diverging views of what novelty requires. Justin Watts and Peter Chalk ask whether some of the tests applied by the courts to check whether prior art is novelty-destroying are going a step too far

IP management software systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Web-enabled technology means that systems can be easily deployed across a business and more specifically, because the software is more flexible, the IP department is able to utilize it for more complex business strategy and financial accounting purposes. These developments are invaluable when many IP departments are experiencing increased pressure to accurately track costs, manage and reduce their costs and generate accurate budgets and forecasts.

Product piracy now threatens nearly every industry. Susanne Koch and Richard Dissmann of Bird & Bird examine the different means of dealing with the problem in Germany

Ben Moshinsky, London