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Kathleen E McCarthy, Morgan & Finnegan, LLP

A ruling that has received wide public attention in the United States, even in the popular press, is the one that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) handed down on February 14 2001 in Amazon.com Inc v Barnesandnoble.com Inc. This ruling vacated a district court's preliminary injunction order preventing Barnes and Noble (BN) from continuing to offer its own so-called "one-click" method for ordering books and other goods online during the course of Amazon's suit asserting that the BN method infringes an Amazon method patent. Despite all the publicity accorded to the ruling, it rests upon very well-established law, widely availed of to defeat preliminary injunction motions in patent infringement suits throughout at least the twentieth century. Its claim to the degree of publicity it received rests upon the case's status as one of the earliest efforts to enforce a "business method" patent against an alleged infringer and not upon the novelty of the legal ruling.

There is in every contract of employment an implied term to maintain confidentiality of information and trade secrets belonging to the employer. This duty stems from the notion of faithful service or fidelity owed both during employment and after that employment has terminated. The duty imposed by the contract of employment during the term of employment on an employee is not to put his or her interests in conflict with those of the employer.

The past year has seen a greater degree of maturity in the processing of trade mark disputes and predictability in foreseeing their outcome. Jeremy Phillips reviews 10 decisions from across Europe which symbolize the trend

The month in figures

Due to growing importance of modern achievements of biotechnology in industry, agriculture and medicine, an adequate legal protection of IP rights in this field is one of the most vital issues world-wide (including in Russia) that needs to be solved for the benefit of public.

Nils V Montan, incoming president of the INTA, is a pragmatist, and believes that beating pirates requires a carrot as well as a stick. Tabitha Parker asked him about the challenges facing trade mark and copyright owners in the new millennium

Plant variety protection is conferred in Romania by Law No 255/1998, which is in accordance with the Convention of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), the 1991 Act. The plant breeders' right is an exclusive right to exploit the variety granted to the breeder of a new plant variety.

As harmonization of registration procedures looms, Latin American practitioners are taking a fundamental look at their practices. Their first challenge is to stop copyright piracy from spiralling out of control. James Nurton reports

Egypt has often been seen as backward in IP matters. But major reforms under discussion will overturn that image, says James Nurton