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Users of the patent system want change, but politically there are still tensions between Europe and the US, and between the positions of developed and developing countries, argues Ivan B Ahlert

Claims such as "the number one" and "the best" are among those frequently made by advertisers for their products and services. Timothy Pinto examines what such claims mean and whether or not they are legal

Since the 1990s, the Indian government's research branch has protected its most important advances with patents. Now the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research is moving on to exploiting those inventions through licensing. RA Mashelkar, CSIR’s director-general, spoke to Ralph Cunningham about the council's IP management strategy

There are two results of prosecuting trade mark applications in any part of the world: either you obtain a registration, or you do not. However, in Mexico there has not been a trade mark denial resulting from not overcoming citations or registrability objections for about 10 years.

Office issues clarification

The Singapore-based company and trade mark applicant, Future Enterprises, has for the second time in less than a year faced opposition to its three marks comprising the words "MacTea", "MacNoodles" and "MacChocolate" together with a "device of an eagle" in class 30.

Changes to Japan's patent law in the early months of 2004 will see lower fees in some cases and the abolition of the opposition system. The amendments to the invalidation appeal procedures are open to abuse and could end up harming patentees' rights, warn John Tessensohn and Shusaku Yamamoto

Pre-trial injunctions offer an alternative to administrative actions and the Civil Procedure Law in IP litigation in China. To benefit properly from them, however, you should follow procedures carefully, warns Matthew Murphy

A rather progressive provision regulating the protection and exercise of trade mark rights has been established with respect to well-known marks. The Ukrainian Trade Mark Law has been supplemented by Article 25 named "Protection of Rights in Well-Known Marks". Article 25 of the law refers to Article 6bis of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. It establishes that it is possible to take a decision of the Chamber of Appeal of the State Department of Intellectual Property of Ukraine or a court decision as the basis for acknowledging a mark to be well-known. Thus, the Trade Mark Law finally details a list of bodies whose competence covers acknowledging a mark to be well-known. In addition, Item 2 of Article 25 establishes factors that might be taken into consideration when acknowledging a mark to be well-known.

Asia-Pacific governments have formally committed themselves to the effective regulation of optical disc production in a bid to minimize piracy.