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James Nurton, London

The ECJ was called upon to clarify a trade mark’s role as a badge of allegiance or badge of origin. Lee Curtis examines the Advocate General’s opinion in the Arsenal case.

There is an anomaly in the law of exhaustion of rights between national trade marks governed by the Trade Marks Directive and Community Trade Marks (CTMs) governed by the Trade Marks Regulation. It is well known that article 7(1) of the Directive provides for community exhaustion and that pursuant to the EEA Agreement, this rule has been expanded to give rise to EEA exhaustion. Therefore, if goods are put on the market with the consent of the trade mark owner in Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein or any of the EU member states, then the exclusive rights given by the national trade marks are exhausted.

Geographical indications are a critical issue for India where many distinctive products have originated. The Indian government has introduced its own imperfect legislation but what is really needed are rules at the international level, argues Latha R

The US Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit may be on a collision course after the higher forum reprimanded the lower and curtailed its powers in patent cases. James Nurton and Sam Mamudi report

The Delhi High Court has come to the aid of the owners of broadcasting rights to the football World Cup. Owners of other Indian IP rights with a limited shelf life should be satisfied with the result, argue Pravin Anand and Shamnad Basheer

The Mexican Industrial Property Law (IPL) grants a patentee the right for the exclusive exploitation of the patented invention. Therefore, the patent gives the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale or importing the covered invention. Briefly, in a patent infringement action the plaintiff must prove the following:

Three-dimensional configurations, including the shape of goods or their wrapping as well as other packaging can be protected as trade marks (3D-marks) in Germany according to section 3 (1) of the 1994 Trade Mark Act. For registration purposes the 3D shape must be portrayed by a two-dimensional illustration. The general rule is specified – that is restricted – by section 3 (2) of the Act which states that signs shall not be protected as trade marks:

EU Directive 98/71/EC requiring harmonization of the laws on design rights in the member states was transposed into the French Intellectual Property Code on July 25 2001, with a transition period which ended on October 1 2001.

Over the next 18 months, 10 central and eastern European countries will receive their patent green card – membership of the European Patent Organization. Ingrid Hering visited some of the candidate countries to find out how they are preparing