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Sending rockets into space is not NASA’s only role, Robert Norwood, director of its commercial programmes division, tells Ralph Cunningham.

Vietnam’s days as a piracy blackspot could be numbered following the introduction of an agreement with the US on December 24 1998.

Rights owners are becoming increasingly creative in the exploitation of their intellectual property rights.

There are signs that Virginia’s eastern district, known since 1990 as the rocket docket, has taken on more than it can chew.

The new Trade Marks Act came into force in January this year, bringing with it key changes for brand owners.

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court has tightened patent filing rules to encourage early filings.

Car maker Porsche has taken action against no less than 130 Internet domain names using its trade marks in an in rem suit.

When Charlene Barshefsky arrives in China in mid-February for the US Trade Representative’s regular visit, she will have her hands full.

Music copyright and the Internet

Recent patent court decisions and also rules of patent practice issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) are changing how the wide spectrum of entities that use computers to conduct fiscal businesses will operate them in the United States, because they now can obtain and assert reliable patent rights against competitors. This legal landscape is evolving from court decisions spanning more than 20 years that define a patent-based framework within which computer technology in particular, computer software can be protected. Software owners have sought such protection because of: (a) recognized limitations in copyrights which protect expression (ie literal lines of computer code), but not ideas (ie the constructs software implement); (b) the substantial financial value software gained during the same decades; and (c) the continuing growth of the businesses that are dependent on computers. It is estimated that by 2001 Internet commerce in the United States will be worth $200 billion. Initially patent protection was not sought for software because of the amount of time involved in obtaining patent rights and also the fact that the Supreme Court (the US court of last resort) has consistently held that laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas are unpatentable subject matter. Software owners perceived tremendous commercial benefits from patent rights, and these perceptions sustained efforts to seek enforceable frameworks for obtaining reliable patent rights.