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James Nurton, Nice

Microsoft has given the music industry a new weapon in its fight against piracy.

Ralph Cunningham, Hong Kong

The European Commission has published controversial proposals to amend the Community Trade Mark Directive.

In recent years, many websites providing goods and services have appeared as a consequence of the development of the internet as a business environment. Consumers all over the world can find a very large range of goods and services easily and quickly. Under these circumstances it was obvious that domain names became a very important element in order to draw the consumer's attention.

Today, the vast majority of national patents pending in the European countries have evolved from patents granted by the European Patent Office. Even if the validity of such a patent has been confirmed in opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office, it can still be attacked in nullity proceedings before the national patent authorities. In national invalidation proceedings, any differences between the European Patent Office and the national authorities with respect to the interpretation of the basic standards for patentability might turn into a trap for the patent owner.

In the past two years, a significant number of shadow companies have been incorporated in Hong Kong, adopting famous marks as part of their company names without the authorization of the rightful proprietor. These companies share the following features:

Restrictions on investment agreements and IP rights came under scrutiny in a recently decided case heard in the UK.

The Federal Court of Australia has struck another blow for novel trade marks with its recent decision to allow the registration of a single-colour mark. Justice Mansfield ruled that Philmac, a maker of equipment for the water industry, can register terracotta as a colour mark for non-metallic rigid irrigation pipe fittings because it is capable of distinguishing the company's products. Philmac had appealed to the court after the Registrar of Trade Marks had rejected the application.

There is no specific provision in French Law allowing the performance of clinical trials, in particular bio-equivalence trials, before the expiry of the patent on the product. Are these acts of infringement? The case law has recently evolved.