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According to Section 10(1) of the German Patent Act, a patent has the effect that any third party that does not have the consent of the patentee is prevented from offering or supplying a component relating to an essential element of the invention. According to the recent Flügelrad decision of the German Supreme Court (X ZR 48/03 dated May 4 2004), in assessing what is an essential element of the invention, only components that have a functional interaction with other elements of the patented device can infringe the patent.

You litigate inside the courtroom; you settle cases outside the courtroom. That's conventional wisdom. But, as the number of cases filed each year continues to increase, more and more courts are getting involved in helping the parties settle their dispute. This is a trend that is expected to continue and it is a development that should be embraced by litigants.

A recently reported Malaysian High Court decision has demonstrated that the country's courts will make a determination based on the judge's visual impression rather than deferring to the opinion of witnesses on the issue of novelty in designs.

Neil Hobbs, IP lawyer at Virgin Enterprises Limited, explains how the company protects more than 2,500 domain names and reveals why it has decided to consolidate its registrations

India introduced a product patent regime to meet its TRIPs deadline by promulgating the Patents Ordinance 2004 on December 26. The Ordinance came into force on January 1. This measure, albeit temporary, reflects the government's resolve to meet its WTO obligations. The Indian constitution provides that an Ordinance expires six weeks after Parliament reconvenes, giving it an effective life span of six months. The government now has the unenviable task of facing opposition parties in its efforts to substitute the Ordinance with an Act.

Under the Mexican Industrial Property Law (IPL), in force since August 2 1994, a trade mark application resulting either in a relative or an absolute ground for refusal can be objected to in a first instance proceeding before the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI). This proceeding provides the applicant with a reasonable term to file arguments to overcome the objection. If the arguments submitted by the applicant do not overcome the objection, according to IMPI's criteria, the application should be formally refused.

'Generic Tide Is Rising' was a cover story that appeared in the September issue of Chemical & Engineering News in 2002. More and more it is said that the innovative pharmaceutical companies are losing market share, not only because their current blockbusters run out of patent protection, but also because the number of new drugs that should boost the profits of the innovators back to the high levels they are accustomed to is said to be very limited.

On December 21 China's Supreme People's Court and the Procuratorate jointly issued an Interpretation on Various Issues Relating to the Handling of Criminal Actions on IPR Infringements (the Interpretation). This came into effect a day later on December 22.

A number of recent cases have addressed the breadth of protection for patents in the UK, Germany and Japan. Ewan Nettleton, Alex Wilson, Julian Eberhardt and Hirokazu Honda examine the consequences for inventive improvements and ask how far international practice is harmonized

Patent leader IBM has said that it will provide open access to 500 of its patents to anyone working in the field of open source software.