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MIP's latest survey of the largest IP practices in Asia, Europe and the US shows how a growing trend towards consolidation is re-shaping IP practices in many parts of the world

Two recent cases in the still blurred area of market dominance have left pharmaceutical companies holding their breath. Sophie Lawrance and Pat Treacy examine the cases and whether the way in which competition law is enforced is becoming an obstacle to the pharmaceutical industry's success

Canada: The Supreme Court of Canada refused to allow the Canadian Private Copying Collective to appeal a December 2004 Federal Court of Appeal decision that a levy on memory permanently embedded in digital audio recorders, commonly referred to as the piracy tax, was invalid. The tax, which Canada's Copyright Board promoted as a protection against copyright infringement, had been in place for a year.

The Hangzhou Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC), the local body responsible for administrative enforcement of trade mark rules, appears to be following the practice of Beijing's local AIC by giving special protection to certain well-known brands.

For its impact on patent owners, Phillips v AWH Corporation is one of the most important cases of the past decade. Thankfully, says Irv Feit, the Federal Circuit found a compromise between the competing approaches to claim interpretation

Mexico's patent regime had, until recently, created a situation that allowed untested generics to come to market. But, says Luis Schmidt, a recent change in the law should improve standards

The decision to trust an outside provider with internal business responsibility is not taken lightly, but for a business looking to cut costs and improve efficiency, outsourcing business responsibilities to a trusted provider is not only cost-effective, but it can also be the most viable option for many of its activities. Already commonplace in the globalized IT industry, this corporate trend has begun to make its way into trade mark departments, as managements increasingly recognize the financial and administrative benefits of outsourcing trade mark renewals to a third-party company.

A number of recent cases confirm that disparities remain in how European and US courts tackle conflicts between competition and intellectual property laws. Companies need to be aware of the impact competition rules can have on the value of their IP, say Isabel Davies, Bruno Lebrun and Andreas Stargard of Howrey

National laws on patent construction may not be harmonized but a series of recent cases in Europe and the US point towards a seemingly comparable approach taken by the courts. Ian Karet and Nigel Jones of Linklaters provide more insight in an in-depth review of some of the most relevant cases

The EU has spoken: the directive for the patenting of computer-implemented inventions is dead. But that does not mean the end for software-related patents, as long as patent attorneys consider all possible drawbacks when drafting applications, say Maarten Ketelaars and Harry de Hoog of Nederlandsch Octrooibureau