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A recent decision by the European Court of First Instance (CFI) has denied the Irish boy band Westlife registration of the Westlife name as a Community trade mark.

In a widely watched patent infringement case, main board-listed Trek 2000 International, an innovator and a patentee in Universal Serial Bus (USB) portable mass storage technology, recently achieved a significant victory in enforcing its patent against four defendants.

On April 19 2005 the Senate approved a Decree amending some articles of the Law of Industrial Property (LIP) and introducing new articles, all of them concerning well-known trade marks.

India's Patent Office has published a draft Manual of Patent Practice & Procedure. The manual runs to 166 pages and contains 14 chapters and three annexes. In the introduction, the Controller of Patents says that the principal objective of the manual is to establish uniformity and homogeneity in the processing of patent applications in India. This is an indirect admission that there has been little uniformity and consistency in India's patent prosecution system so far, particularly in the examination system. In particular, there has been a considerable degree of subjectivity in the way that the structure and functions of claims have been dealt with, the most critical aspect of the patent prosecution system.

According to subsection 4 of new §1(a) of the German Patent Act (GPA) implementing EU Directive 98/44/EC, a claim to a naturally occurring DNA sequence must recite the use of the DNA. There appears to be a general understanding in the patent community that this proviso establishes purpose-limited protection for DNA sequences. There is no doubt that this notion finds support among members of the legislative bodies, whose statements on the subject show a clear inclination to exempt gene sequences from absolute compound protection.

More and more companies are transferring R&D operations to China to capitalize on the country's cheap, highly skilled scientists and localize their product development. But how should they get their IP out? Alan Adcock explains

Recent years have seen businesses discover the enormous marketing potential of the internet. But the online boom has brought with it new opportunities for mischief as well as for more legitimate enterprise. Antony Gold explains why brand name interception is becoming an increasing problem

Europe is following the US example and introducing a Bolar provision to exempt generic research aimed at obtaining regulatory approval. Marjan Noor and Camilla Smith examine the proposal and how it is likely to be implemented by member states

All too often, observers of patent trials fail to recognize a settlement as a victory for the accused infringer. Michael Cummings offers several ways to analyze even confidential agreements for signs of which party came out on top

The UN is set to agree a controversial convention that will have serious implications for international licence agreements. Ben Goodger and Patsy Day analyze the details of the convention, and reveal why IP owners should be worried