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Four years after Australia first allowed the filing of novel trade marks, Bill Bennett reviews the state of play in relation to shape and colour registrations

For pharma patent owners, things are suddenly looking brighter in Russia. Following a series of defeats for plaintiffs, on October 18, Pfizer won an injunction against Indian company Dr Reddy's Laboratories prohibiting manufacture and sale of its Stamlo product.

New legislation governing the use of electronic signatures came into force in Spain in the form of Royal Decree Law 14/1999, on September 18 1999.

Federal Circuit claim construction rulings with interesting aspects continue to emerge. Among the most recent ones worthy of note are two which demonstrate a worrisome trend on the part of at least some Federal Circuit judges to focus upon specific claim language rather than determining what the whole claim means.

In a recent decision of the appeals division of the Trade Mark Registry, the proprietor of a well known trade mark has for the first time since the introduction of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (TMA 1994) succeeded in preventing a third party from registering the same name for a completely different product.

Georgia is an independent state which gained independence after the disintegration of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the decade. Prior to independence, all patent matters were dealt with centrally from Moscow which inevitably affected the potential of local patent experts.

The Polish Parliament (Seym) continues to work on improving the system of industrial property protection. It seems the long-lasting and thorough discussions on legal solutions which are to be introduced are coming to an end. However, it does not seem possible that the new Industrial Property Law will come into force on January 1 2000, as it was suggested by the Polish government. The above date of implementation of new regulations adapted to the standards of the European Union would be highly desirable because as from January 1 2000 Poland will be fully bounded by the TRIPs provisions.

Shape trade marks are registrable in Australia by virtue of the Trade Marks Act 1995. As yet there is little case law on the subject but a recent decision of the Australian Trade Marks Office, Re Chocolaterie Guylian NV, gives an insight into considerations that will be made during examination of applications for registration of shape trade marks.

Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear: the winning formula

Merger set to create world’s biggest IP firm