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No recently decided US patent case has as great a potential for affecting the vast majority of presently existing and still-to-be issued US patents as that which will emerge from the US Supreme Court's impending review, in its upcoming 2001-2002 term, of the Federal Circuit's en banc decision in Festo Corp v Skoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co, Ltd, 234 F 3d 558 (Fed Cir 2000), certiorari granted, June 19 2001.

James Nurton investigates how .info’s sunrise registration period is shaping up after its first month and, overleaf, examines how much registrars are charging for registrations in the two new top level domains

Jeffrey Berkowitz, partner, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP

Mr Justice Laddie's judgment in Arsenal Football Plc v Matthew Reed could deal a serious blow to those engaged in the business of merchandising in the UK.

Among the causes of action included in the Mexican Trade Mark Law to cancel a trade mark registration, a cancellation action based on lack of use is available. Under the provisions of this law, if a mark is not used by its owner on the goods or services for which it was registered within three years, cancellation of the registration would proceed. This three year period is counted backwards from the filing of the cancellation claim.

Canada: WIPO has transferred 31 domain names to the Canadian government, including CanadaCouncil.com and CanadianCustoms.com, after it found that they were registered in bad faith with the intention to resell them. The panel also heard that the sites were used to redirect internet users seeking Canadian government web sites to sites owned by the registrant.

Music Broadcast Pvt, the plaintiff, is a company that has been granted permission by the Indian government to start FM radio stations in various cities. Phonographic Performance Ltd, the defendant, is a collecting society administering the public performance rights of publishers of sound recordings in India. Over the period of a year, Music Broadcast Pvt has invested huge sums of money, and has applied for, and obtained, all the necessary government clearances for commencing private radio broadcasts. The company has also obtained a licence to publicly perform musical works from the Indian Performers Right Society (IPRS), a collecting society which administers the public performance rights of composers and authors in India. The only remaining licence that was required to be obtained to commence the broadcasting of music was a licence from the defendant.

John Olsen With four months to go before the latest changes to the Nice Classification come into effect, concern is growing about the impact of the reforms on existing trade marks.

Ralph Cunningham, Hong Kong

The Malaysian government is to ban the sale in open places, such as roadsides and night markets, of VCDs, CDs and DVDs in a bid to crack down on piracy in the country. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the minister for domestic trade and consumer affairs, announced the ban on August 6 after a meeting of the government's Special Anti-Piracy Task Force.