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Alvaro Cabeza and Paz Martín examine how the Spanish courts have tackled trade mark and copyright disputes involving the internet, and ask what lessons have been learned for rights owners

The counterfeit industry in Korea is proving hard to contain. Korean counterfeiters are producers and exporters of fake goods on a global scale. But now trade mark owners have organized themselves and are fighting back. Ralph Cunningham reports

Spain has long been vulnerable to parallel imports, explains Carles Prat of Mullerat in Barcelona. But recent decisions have confirmed the principle of Community-wide exhaustion

Design protection has recently been overhauled in Spain. Jorge Llevat of Cuatrecasas in Barcelona examines the reforms, and explains how rights owners can best obtain protection

In an attempt to counter the effects of a recently-passed US law allowing medicine to be imported from Canada, drugs-maker Pfizer has said that it will stop supplying Canadian wholesalers and will only deal directly with pharmacists.

Microsoft will appeal a Chicago jury verdict that ordered it to pay $521 million to the University of California and Eolas Technologies for patent infringement.

Ingrid Hering, London

Judge Paul Michel has been a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for 15 years, and is scheduled to become Chief Judge next year. Ingrid Hering met him at the FICPI World Congress in Berlin in June and asked how patent law has developed and how advocacy in the court can be improved

Neil Turkewitz, executive vice president, Recording Industry Association of America

The recent decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Board of Education ex rel Board of Trustees of Florida State University v American Bioscience Inc, 67 USPQ 2d 1252 (Fed Cir 2003) focuses on the importance under US law of correctly naming the true inventor (or inventors) on US patents. While the decision enunciates no new legal principles, its thorough discussion of the criteria for inventorship under US law merits attention. In particular, this discussion should be helpful in the US and elsewhere to institutions of higher learning in clarifying that the criteria generally used in naming authors on scientific papers are inapplicable to patent inventorship determinations. In addition, non-US companies and other groups applying for US patents will find that this discussion presents in one place a clear exposition of US inventorship criteria.