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Law no. 202 on the assurance of the abidance by the intellectual property rights during Customs operations was adopted at the end of 2000 and this was followed by the Methodological Norms for the enforcement of Law no 202/2000 on March 8 2001.

The growing importance of IP rights in Japan has led to frequent amendments to the corpus of Japanese IP laws. Such tweaking has however made it more difficult than ever to gain a grasp on which amendments are applicable to which patents. The following is a quick summary of the major amendments to the Japanese Patent Law made over the last 20 years.

In German court decisions as well as in the German patent literature it has been a generally accepted position that product claims on the one hand and process claims on the other hand represent distinct claim categories; and that product patents (containing only product claims) and process patents (containing only process claims) are distinct patent categories. The applicant is free to choose the appropriate claim category or categories; a patent may contain product claims, process claims or both. However, after grant this choice is binding on the patentee, and a change of category from a product patent to a process patent (and vice versa) is considered to be inadmissible because it involves an extension of the protection conferred (Benkard, Patentgesetz – Gebrauchsmustergesetz, 9th Edition 1993, pages 141, 501, 686 and 710).

Ingrid Hering, London

Anti-counterfeiting agencies have scored some major victories against copyright pirates in the UK. But enforcement remains an uphill struggle, as Ingrid Hering reports

Children mean big business in the world of toys, books and clothes merchandising. Ingrid Hering visited the headquarters of Fox Kids Europe to investigate how its licensing strategy works

The insurance industry has dragged its feet over IP risk management but things are changing rapidly, explains Robert Chase

The ECJ’s ruling in Philips v Remington has dealt a blow to trade mark owners hoping to register shape marks in Europe. Chris McLeod examines the decision

The heated debate intensifies over how far geographical indication protection should go. Bruce J MacPherson sheds light on the consequences for brand owners and outlines the INTA proposal solution on how how to avoid a collision between GIs and TMs

Howard Coble is a congressman in the United States House of Representatives and has been chairman of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property since 1994. He is a Republican and represents North Carolina. Blaine Merritt has been chief counsel of the subcommittee since February 2000.