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One of the key issues in the complex of problems surrounding exhaustion is the question of whether goods bearing the mark of a trade mark owner have been put on the market with that owner's consent. If so, the trade mark owner cannot prohibit parallel-importers from importing the goods into the EEA, according to article 7, section 1 of the Harmonization Directive (89/104/EEC).

Lucian Enescu In Romania, the holder of a previously registered trade mark (or application), or of a notorious trade mark may, under law no 84/1998, file an opposition to the registration of a new trade mark (within three months from the date when it was published in the Official Gazette). The opponent may consider the new sign as being prejudicial to their previous right if it is identical or similar to their own trade mark or if it protects identical or similar products as the ones protected by their own trade mark. An assessment in the case of identical marks is simpler. For similar trade marks, three possible types of similarity must be considered when analyzing a new trade mark for registration: visual, phonetic and semantic.

? China: An appeal court in Shanghai has banned seven former Unilever employees from appealing any further against a verdict finding them guilty of making fake shampoo worth Rmb1.27 million

Antonina Pakharenko-Anderson of Pakharenko & Partners in Kiev examines how to enforce IP rights in Ukraine under the revised laws

Dr Gavin D Recchia and Dr Andrew N Blattman of Ella Cheong Mirandah & Sprusons in Singapore examine how to obtain protection for genes in Singapore

Michiel Rijsdijk of Arnold + Siedsma in The Hague examines why the European Court of Justice decided not to annul the biotechnology directive

Gitanjli Duggal and Sunita K Sreedharan of Anand and Anand in New Delhi provide an update on the latest patent and design developments in India’s legislature and courts

Tamás Bokor of SBG & K Patent Office in Budapest explains how the amended Hungarian Patent Act has affected the protection of service and employee’s inventions

? China: On March 4, Chinese Customs had its biggest success ever in the campaign against pirated optical discs when it seized 4 million CDs from a fishing boat in Shenzhen, a city in the south of the country.

Milan Kraus, of PATENTSERVIS Praha, reviews the most important changes in protecting IP rights in the Czech Republic, paying special regard to biotechnology