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Franchisors who try to stop franchisees from selling outside their allocated territories in the EU may fall foul of competition legislation. Mark Abell analyzes how EU law is developing to cope with the internet

After much debate and a long gestation period, the EU Council of Ministers finally adopted on April 9 the Directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. At the time of writing, the Directive had not been published in the Official Journal, but this is likely to take place within a few weeks of April 9. Following publication, member states must implement the Directive in national law within 18 months. The intention was that the Copyright Directive should be implemented within a timescale similar to that for the implementation of the E-Commerce Directive, which must be implemented by member states by no later than January 17 2002. The Copyright Directive will have to be implemented by member states by about a year later than that. The Copyright Directive seeks to achieve a number of objectives. These include a degree of harmonization of copyright and related rights laws throughout the Community. The Directive also seeks to introduce protections for technical measures and rights-management information.

Monster.com, Unilever and Lucent have all recently suffered from the alleged theft of trade secrets. With more online companies and a greater dependence on electronic methods of storage and transfer of information, corporate espionage is set to become a major threat, reports Tabitha Parker

The Ukraine's reputation as the world's most persistent IP violator was confirmed in this year's US Trade Representative Special 301 Report. The Ukraine, identified as a Priority Foreign Country on March 12, almost certainly faces trade sanctions at the end of June unless it takes radical moves to address its severe IP problems.

The new generic top level domains are finally becoming available to domain name registrants. The first new domains available will be .biz and .info. .biz is trialling a unique service that enables trade mark owners to pay a fee to stake claims to domain names without registering them. The service, operated by NeuLevel, came into operation on May 19 and the notification period lasts until July 9. It enables potential registrants to be warned if their preferred domain name infringes any prior claimed rights, as well as warning those who have staked a claim if anyone else tries to register the same words. After July 9, .biz applications can be made and the .biz sites will be operational on October 1.

The Hong Kong Domain Name Registration (HKDNR) has finally relaxed domain name rules to allow companies to register multiple names under .hk, in a bid to boost the internet industry and facilitate e-commerce. Until now, it has been difficult for Hong Kong companies to differentiate their various products or services online but this problem ends on June 1, when they will be able to register more than one .hk domain name.

In the spotlight: Woody Ritchey, Chief Executive Officer, Delphion

The Advocate General’s Opinion in the Davidoff and Levi’s case was welcomed by both brand owners and parallel importers. David Rose analyzes the Opinion and suggests that brand owners have slightly more to be pleased about

Cathryn Warburton explains how and why Customs notices are an essential part of anti-counterfeiting in New Zealand, and answers the most common questions about border protection measures

In a landmark case, a UK court has ruled that oil company BP can stop rivals from using its distinctive colour green on their service stations. Ian Wood, Nicola Boxall and Mary Bagnall examine the decision