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It is a cruel blow to succeed in both lower courts but to fail at the final hurdle. That is the fate that befell parties in two recent New Zealand cases, interestingly at the hands of two different courts, as New Zealand completes the transition from the old to the new.

On May 29 2006, the State Council of China issued the Regulations on Protection of Rights of Communication Via the Information Network that will come into effect on July 1 2006. The Regulations are made in light of the WIPO Copyright Treaty 1996 and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty 1996 in relation to the provisions relating to the communication or distribution of the relevant copyright works using wire or wireless means.

Turkey issued its patent law first in 1879, making it one of the earliest countries to do so, but unfortunately no further steps were taken until 1994, when the Turkish Patent Institute was founded. The Turkish Patent Decree Law, comparable to modern provisions, was published in 1995 and was followed by related regulations and several amendments.

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