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In view of the high priority the Malaysian government gives to intellectual property, the Malaysian Intellectual Property Corporation (MyIPO) has undertaken the task of speeding up patent registration in the country. As of last year, at least 33,000 patent applications had been filed with MyIPO and that figure is expected to rise sharply. In view of this huge growth and the impending backlog of applications, the Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs has announced that MyIPO will hire between 42 and 100 external examiners to help it assess and examine patent applications. These external examiners will come from various technical organizations, including the Standards and Industrial Research Institute (SIRIM). In addition to being a source of external examiners, SIRIM is also training an additional 500 patent examiners who will eventually be recruited by MyIPO to assist in expediting the registration process.

As reported in the April issue of MIP, the implementation of the so-called biotech directive (EU directive 98/44/EC) into the German Patent Act (GPA) has become effective. This implementation, however, does not only affect material patent law with respect to biotechnological inventions, but also led to a change of §24 GPA regulating the requirements of compulsory licences.

Graphic health warnings have hit the tobacco industry and are threatening to jump to other consumer goods sectors as well. Toe Su Aung warns that the regulators' increased use of shock therapy labelling could seriously impinge on the value of brands and IP rights

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.