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A monthly column devoted to IP curiosities and controversies, named in honour of John of Utynam – who became the world's first recorded patent owner in 1449

Sam Mamudi, New York

Sam Mamudi, New York

MIP received the following letter from US patent owner Vergil L Daughtery, III, in reaction to Adam Jaffe and Josh Lerner's article on 'How to fix the US patent system', in the May 2005 issue

Emma Barraclough, Hong Kong

Rule 126 of the Philippine Rules of Court says that a search warrant cannot be issued except upon probable cause. In the case of Sony Music Entertainment (Phils), et al v Hon. Judge Dolores Español et al (G.R. No 156804, March 14 2005), Sony learned this rule the hard way.

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