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Changes to Japan's patent law in the early months of 2004 will see lower fees in some cases and the abolition of the opposition system. The amendments to the invalidation appeal procedures are open to abuse and could end up harming patentees' rights, warn John Tessensohn and Shusaku Yamamoto

The European Commission proposes to make radical changes to technology licensing within Europe. The proposed new Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (TTBER) is presented as a business-friendly liberalization of the European technology transfer regime. However, many commentators feel that these proposals will stifle technology transfer, considerably reduce the value of intellectual property rights, and may cause Europe to fall further behind the United States in the development of new technology industries.

The Malaysian government in its efforts to encourage Malaysian industries to conduct more R&D and to promote Malaysian products and services overseas has introduced several incentives in the 2004 budget. Some of the salient features in this respect are:

Although the Copyright Directive has come into force, it is only the first step in achieving harmonized copyright protection in the digital age, explains Anna Duffus

Users of the patent system want change, but politically there are still tensions between Europe and the US, and between the positions of developed and developing countries, argues Ivan B Ahlert

Stéphanie Bodoni, London

Paul Twomey is the first non-American to be appointed president and chief executive officer of ICANN. Left with the legacy of radical reform plans, Twomey shares with Sam Mamudi his views about the organization's performance and the challenges ahead

Worldwide forum on trade mark protection, Geneva, Switzerland, December 1-2. Details at www.inta.org

The 15th ASIPI Congress attracted more than 600 delegates to Mexico City from November 16 to 20. Discussions included the Madrid Protocol, IP licensing, image rights, ecommerce dispute resolution, generics, and antitrust.

The bankruptcy reform Organic Act 8/2003, published on July 9 this year, amended the Organic Act of the Judiciary and set up the commercial courts and the Community Trade Mark Court.