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This month´ s cover story tackles the thorny question of what constitutes fair advertising. Clothing company Benetton has built its reputation by shocking and surprising consumers with pictures depicting natural disasters, illness and danger. Its tactics have led to complaints from the public and regulators, with authorities in some countries banning particular adverts. In Germany, the picture of an oil-encrusted duck was held by the Federal Supreme Court to be offensive under the Unfair Competition Law. Following a five-year legal battle, in December the Federal Constitutional Court overturned this ban. The decision gives a green light to advertisers (companies and charities) to use provocative images in their advertising in Germany, previously one of Europe´ s more restrictive markets.

The Federal Patent Court recently acknowledged the principal registrability of a new kind of trade mark, a so-called "positioning mark" (see for instance BPatG 28W (pat) 66/99 Positionierungsmarke). With this new kind of trade mark, signs such as single letters or exclamation marks, which are otherwise considered not to be registrable, may be registered, if the following minimum requirements are fulfilled: The sign appears on a specific part of the product, eg a jeans pocket or the flank of a tennis shoe. It appears always at the same place of said part of the product. It appears in a constant size (absolute or relative to the size of the goods). It exhibits a particular colour contrast with respect to the goods labelled with the positioning mark. Therefore, in an application for a positioning mark the definition of the carrier (the goods onto which the label is affixed), the position of the sign on the carrier as well as its size of must be given. It is further advisable to give a short description of the mark.

New decisions and rulings on domain names are coming thick and fast from Palestine to Belgium. The past month has seen some significant amendments and cases. MIP rounds up some of the latest domain name developments. US: www.vw.net Volkswagen won the right to the domain name vw.net. Virtual Works of Virginia registered VW.NET in October 1996, but Volkswagen claimed the use constituted infringement and dilution of its mark. Virtual Works filed a civil lawsuit to block an attempt to reassign its domain name claiming that .net was for networking operations, not automobiles. In February 2000 a court ruled that the car maker was entitled to the name as Virtual Works had attempted to sell the domain name to Volkswagen which was a violation of the 1999 Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. A three-judge panel upheld this decision on January 22 2000.

Nearly one-third of European dot-com companies are failing to protect their trade marks in their home markets, according to a new survey. Even worse, just 60% have registered any trade marks overseas and four out of five have spent nothing on patent protection. The findings come in a survey of 400 senior managers at companies in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. The survey was carried out by Landwell, the correspondent law firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Todd Dickinson´ s two-year stint as head of the US Patent and Trademark Office ended on Saturday 20 January, following George W Bush´ s inauguration. He was immediately hailed as one of the most successful Commissioners in recent times. Dickinson oversaw a 70% increase in patent applications; a 200% rise in the number of trade mark applications; a complete restructuring of the agency´ s management team; and an increased number of patent and trade mark examiners. It was a busy two years. "He did a marvellous job," says Michael Heltzer, government relations manager of the International Trade Mark Association (INTA). "He totally understood the role of the PTO in safeguarding America´ s ideas, something which his predecessors did not." Michael Kirk, executive director of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) agrees: "Dickinson dedicated a lot more effort to the actual running of the office than his predecessor Bruce Lehman, putting more emphasis on processing applications and the quality of patent examinations, which are critical to the office."

The Andean Pact member states have long been viewed as a backwater in the technology field. But, reports James Nurton, the new Decision 486 should radically improve patent protection and transform that image

January 1 2000, as for many developing countries, was an important date in India’s diary. It marked the end of the country’s five-year transition period and the moment it became subject to the TRIPs agreement. Tabitha Parker spoke to two senior industry figures about the change

The decision of the Court of Appeal in Douglas & Others v Hello Ltd has been heralded as having recognized a right of privacy in English law. Stephen Bate and Lawrence Abramson analyze the decision and its implications

Internet and e-commerce allow an entrepreneur to develop sales schemes of its products and services with a never previously imagined territorial scope and extension. Direct selling is both attractive and advantageous. E-commerce requires in some cases, therefore, the adjustment and of course, the amendment of some clauses of commercial inter-mediation contracts, either distribution, agency, licence, supply or franchise contracts.

Nearly a decade after the first release of shocking advertising images by Benetton, the German Federal Constitutional Court has now found the ads acceptable. Henning Hartwig examines the landmark decision, which has finally put an extensive discussion to rest