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Stéphanie Bodoni, London

A case that will decide how to calculate the length of patent protection for new medicines in the EU has been referred to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling.

Readers of this column will recall that we published an article last year indicating that the French government was studying a proposed revision of the 'Lois sur la bioéthique'. The draft bill contained an article 12bis, which unambiguously indicated that "the sequence or partial sequence of a gene is not patentable". If adopted, the French law would have been in complete contradiction with the EU Biotechnology Directive (Directive 44/98/CE).

On April 10, the European Parliament, in its first reading of the Tissues and Cells Directive (the Directive), voted in favour of a ban on the creation of human embryos for research purposes including stem cell research. MEPs stopped short of demanding an outright ban on the use of embryonic stem (ES) cells for research. However, they imposed severe restrictions, the effect of which could be to make it difficult for scientists to justify their use.

A new Intellectual Property Law bill is expected to be presented to Parliament shortly. The present Law is contained in the Code of Intellectual Property Act No 52 of 1979.

On February 28 2003 the Singapore government introduced a number of fiscal incentives in the 2003 budget to make Singapore an even more attractive location for IP rights holders.

Mexican trade mark law establishes: "industrialists, merchants, or service providers may use trade marks in industry, in commerce or in services render; nevertheless, the right to their exclusive use is obtained through their registration with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property". The same rule applies to slogans or publicity phrases.

Korea has become the 57th country to join the Protocol relating to the Madrid Agreement concerning the International Registration of Marks (Madrid Protocol) by depositing an instrument of ratification of the Protocol with the WIPO on January 10 2003. As of April 11 2003, three months after the instrument of ratification was deposited with the WIPO, the Madrid Protocol entered into force in Korea. Upon joining the Madrid Protocol, obtainment of a trade mark registration in Korea for foreign applicants is possible in two ways. An applicant can designate Korea as one of the target countries in his international application. Otherwise, he can file a separate national application to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO).

The act of using a registered trade mark for the designated goods of that registered trade mark usually constitutes an act of infringement when performed by a third party with no direct rights thereto. Such acts are naturally subject to injunction and damage compensation. However, the case is not so clear-cut in the situation where the third party is importing trade marked goods which are genuine articles manufactured by one having the right to use the trade mark and legitimately purchased in another country (so-called parallel importation). In 1970, the Osaka District Court made it clear that parallel importation of trade marked goods may, in some circumstances, not constitute infringement. Similar decisions have since been issued by other lower courts.

Section 10 of the German Patent Act defines the constituent elements of contributory infringement as follows: a patent has apart from prohibiting direct infringement the further effect that a person not having the consent of the patentee shall be prohibited from supplying or offering to supply within the territory to which the Act applies a person, other than a person entitled to exploit the patented invention, with means relating to an essential element of such invention for exploiting the invention, where such person knows or it is obvious from the circumstances, that such means are suitable and intended for exploiting the invention. This does not apply when the means are staple commercial products, except where such person induces the person supplied to commit acts of direct infringement.