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Members of the Baker & McKenzie Latin American Patent Practice Group1 compare the laws on compulsory licences throughout Latin America

Following our article on generic domains in Europe in the February issue, Martin Schwimmer examines how the USPTO and US courts have treated trade mark applications consisting of domain names

The Mexican Law of Industrial Property establishes certain exclusions for the enforcement of patents.

The late Jerome H Lemelson is well known to numerous manufacturers, not only in the United States but all around the world. During his lifetime, Lemelson, who was the extremely litigious inventor-owner of a large number of patents granted by the United States and many other countries, was also famous for his pursuit of what are known in the United States as submarine patents. The term submarine, which is not unique to Lemelson patents, is based upon the fact that US patents so termed have matured from divisional or continuation applications of parent, grandparent, or even more remote ancestor patent applications filed, in some cases, 20 to 30 years before issuance of the submarine descendant patent.

If the subject-matter of a granted German patent is an invention for which a European patent to the same inventor or its successor in law has been granted (which has the same priority and is valid in Germany) then the German patent becomes ineffective to the extent to which it protects the same invention as the European patent. This happens (1) at the end of the opposition period of the European patent, provided no opposition has been filed, or (2) at the end of European opposition proceedings, provided the European patent has been (at least partially) maintained, or (3) when the German patent is granted after (1) or (2).

? EU: The Community Designs Regulation came into force on March 6, providing uniform registered and unregistered design rights across member states. OHIM will administer applications for registered Community Designs.

Reinhardt Schuster and Clemens Rübel of Bardehle Pagenberg Dost Altenburg Geissler Isenbruck in Munich review the scope of protection under the doctrine of equivalents as it applies to patent claims including numerical data in Germany

The Copyright Licensing and Administration Society of Singapore Limited (Class) and INSEAD, the French business school, have inaugurated the first copyright licence scheme in South-East Asia for academic book publishing. Under the agreement, Class will issue a statutory licence to INSEAD for photocopying books, journals and other publications belonging to its members and those of other organizations from the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO).

Russia's trade mark community has intensified pressure for tougher legislation to crack down on counterfeiting despite several legislative changes in recent months. A new Code of Administrative Offences, which comes into force on July 1, strengthens civil penalties for trade mark infringement, including the unprecedented provision for the seizure of counterfeit goods.

Numerous forms of IP rights insurance are now available. Janice Denoncourt argues that insurance can be used offensively and defensively and is something all IP owners should consider