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Following two reviews of Australia's intellectual property legislation, the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill 2006 was introduced into the Australian Parliament on March 30 2006. If passed in its present form, the Bill will make a number of changes to Australia's legislation, particularly to the Trade Marks Act 1995 and the Patents Act 1990.

It has been another busy year for the courts in Luxembourg. Ilanah Simon says that, while case law on registrability is now well settled, questions remain on the scope of trade mark owners' rights, and what determines how far they can extend

As the EU expands, the number of oppositions to Community trade mark applications is on the rise. Guy Heath and Eesheta Shah argue that, to be successful, it is imperative that applicants know their enemy

With the new Regulation on Community designs, the path towards a unified system for protecting designs in Europe is clear. But it is still not easy, as Henning Hartwig of Bardehle Pagenberg reports

The Swedish Supreme Court has recently (February 1 2006) delivered a judgment in an interesting trade mark case, which concerns how and when a registered trade mark can be cancelled for non-use, and in particular the date from which the period of non-use of a trade mark must be calculated.

On April 3 2006 the UK Patent Office took the lead in promoting alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in Intellectual Property disputes by being the first patent and trade mark office anywhere in the world to set up a formal commercial mediation service. The initiative involves the creation of a new Mediation Service Team within the Patent Office who are able to mediate IP disputes referred to them from Patent Office hearings, the Courts or the parties themselves. To raise awareness of the new service the Patent Office has issued Guidance Notes on its website and is producing a range of literature aimed at encouraging parties to consider mediation as an alternative to litigation.

The Mexican Patent Office has finally implemented internal examining guidelines that substantially mirror those of the European Patent Office for the examination of computer software-implemented inventions. The emphasis now to be placed by Mexican examiners examining computer software-implemented inventions is on the technical characteristics that have a technical effect rather than on the subject matter of the invention.

Emma Barraclough, Hong Kong

A recent decision of the UK High Court has confirmed that Trade Marks Registry oppositions can create estoppel in subsequent High Court infringement proceedings.

The Singapore Court of Appeal recently overruled a High Court decision upholding the registration of the trade mark NIKE, which had been registered by a Spanish company, Campomar.