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The Polish Parliament has just finished its work on the Intellectual Property Law passed on March 17 2000. Nevertheless, the law can enter into force only after being signed by the President of Poland. But the President has doubts about the constitutionality of a rule added by Senate at the last stage of its work.

A recent Full Federal Court decision in Australia has held that the contributory infringement provisions found in the Patents Act 1990 are effective in relation to method claims.

The Finnish Patent Law was amended on 15 July 2000. The law specifies the principles of patentability, definition of the invention and the scope of the patent in accordance with the EU biotechnology directive. Principally the Finnish patent practice has been in accordance with the directive for some time.

The doctrine of contributory infringement was first introduced into Australian patent statute by the Patents Act 1990. Section 117 of the Act provides:

A string of high-profile cases has raised the question of where the boundaries of trade mark protection should be drawn. In the first article in a series, a team of correspondents compare trade mark registrability in eight countries from China to Chile

Politicians and regulators are responding to competition in the pharmaceutical industry by threatening patent rights. The consequence will be all out war between branded companies and generics. Tabitha Parker reports from the front line

At the conclusion of the Trilateral Technical Meeting Study, held in Tokyo in June, the Trilateral Offices ? the JPO, USPTO and EPO ? issued a Report on a Comparative Study Carried Out under Trilateral Project B3b with a "Consensus Summary ? Confirmed Current Practices on Business Method Related Inventions". The consensus on computer implemented business methods is:

Julia Phillpot Anti-piracy manager Microsoft UK

In a recent case, the English Court of Appeal looked again at the issue of the purposive construction of a patent (Wheatley & Anor v Drillsafe Ltd & Anors). Wheatley´ s patent claimed a centre-less hole cutter, which is a hole cutter with no central drill for forming a pilot hole. This is especially suitable for forming threaded holes in, for example, underground petrol tanks without the need to open the tanks. The defendants´ drill had a semi-penetrating retractable probe within the cutting tool to prevent the cutter from wandering. The defendants argued that this probe meant that the drill was a variant which fell outside the claims of the patent.

On July 28 2000, the Singapore Court of Appeal delivered its first patent infringement judgment under the new Singapore Patents Act, dismissing an appeal by Merck & Co Inc (Merck) to inter alia reinstate some of the product claims in its patent for a purer form of a known substance, Lovastatin (Merck & Co Inc v Pharmaforte Singapore Pte Ltd (Civil Appeal No 9 of 2000)). The Lovastatin covered by Merck´ s patent contained less than 0.2% dimeric impurity.