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Wubbo de Boer, OHIM president, spoke to MIP editor James Nurton about the challenges facing the Office as it deals with the new Community Design, the introduction of electronic filing and the expansion of the EU

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 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.

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.

Ralph Cunningham, Hong Kong

One of the most elusive questions in copyright litigation faced by courts the world over has been how to map out the horizons of the idea/expression dichotomy. In 1978, the Supreme Court of India in the RG Anand case held that one of the surest and safest tests to determine whether or not there has been a copyright infringement is to see if the reader after having read both the works gets an unmistakable impression that the subsequent work appears to be a copy of the original.

Since July 1 2003, the European Patent Office has started a new pilot project which may be of interest to a large number of applicants.

Where to litigate and how to collect evidence are two of the more important issues for a party in a patent infringement action in China. In the first of a two-part article, Gordon Gao explains how to avoid mistakes

Criminal procedures can be an effective means of taking action against counterfeiters. Steven Bazerman and Jason Drangel examine the opportunities for rights owners at federal and state level in the US

? Australia: The government has published four issues papers dealing with its review of the Digital Agenda copyright reforms. Philips Fox, the law firm, is carrying out the review on behalf of the attorney-general's department.