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A series of changes to IP protection in Spain signals good news for rights owners, and will make the country a more attractive place to protect and enforce patents, trade marks and designs

Seven years after the Community Trade Mark Office opened, the initial problems of excessive demand and staffing requirements have been tackled. Now, the Office is facing new challenges with the introduction of the Community Design, reform of the Trade Mark Regulation and next year's expansion of the EU

As 10 countries prepare to join the EU next year, John Olsen of Field Fisher Waterhouse in London examines the implications of expansion for trade mark owners

Novel trade marks - such as smells, sounds, shapes and colours - are popular with brand owners, but have often proved controversial when tested in Europe's courts. MIP assembled five specialists from different backgrounds to discuss how companies use these types of marks and whether the registries and courts can meet their needs

The obsolete Spanish regulation on industrial models and designs of 1929 has finally been reviewed and substituted by a new modern Design Law, adapted to EU Directive 98/71/EC.

Wu Yuhe and Dong Jiangxong, of China Patent Agent (HK) Ltd, explain what you should know about patent and trade mark assignment, licensing and technology transfer in China

There were 23 Americans on our MIP 50 list of the most influential people in IP, published in last month's issue. But, judging from readers' responses, that was not enough.

On July 24 2003 the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) issued the new Implementing Measures for Administrative Penalties on Copyright Infringement, effective September 1 2003, to replace the earlier measures issued in 1997. The Measures aim to make the provisions consistent with those of the new Copyright Law and Copyright Implementing Regulations which underwent substantial amendments in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Moreover, they supplement the Law and the Implementing Regulations so as to make them more operable when it comes to administrative enforcement of copyright. The major changes are as follows.

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

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