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The biotech industry is growing rapidly but facing many new challenges, from revised PTO guidelines to the possibilities of licensing and patent pooling. Tabitha Parker asks senior in-house counsel how they are coping with change

It is an established principle applied by the European and German patent authorities that, under certain circumstances, functional features may be used for the characterization of subject matter in patent claims (see eg EPO in T 68/85; German Federal Supreme Court in "Trioxan"). Functional features have always been essential for obtaining meaningful protection for biotechnological inventions. Recently, an increasing trend towards a more general use of this type of feature for obtaining broad patent protection can be observed, specifically where patent protection for pharmaceutical compounds and medical uses is sought. Applicants should, however, be aware of the requirements to be met for the successful use of functional features in patent claims.

On April 2, technology standard-makers voted against adding copy-protection support directly into computer hardware, a controversial proposal aiming to smooth adoption of strong anti-piracy safeguards. The vote was closely watched by hardware makers, Hollywood studios and record labels as well as free speech advocates as a signal of how much control the content and computer industries would have over consumers' use of home PCs.

Three years after the European Database Directive came into force, protection is being tested in the courts. Georgie Taylor examines the lessons from recent cases

One of the world's most valuable domain names has just got more expensive ? $65 million more. On April 3, a Californian court awarded $65 million to Gary Kremen, who originally registered the sex.com domain name in 1994.

Jane Mutimear, Bird & Bird, London, Vice president of the Intellectual Property Constituency of ICANN

A decision of special interest to the biotechnology community, Hitzeman v Rutter, 58 USPQ 2d 1161 (Fed Cir 2001), was delivered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC or Federal Circuit) on March 21. The case arose as an appeal from the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) Board of Appeals and Interferences and it involved a determination of who is entitled to receive a US patent covering the particulate hepatitis B surface antigen produced in yeast cells, which is an effective human vaccine against hepatitis B. Prior to this invention, it was doubted by informed scientists that satisfactory hepatitis B surface antigen for vaccine purposes could be achieved using recombinant yeast cells as host cells, since bacterial host cells transformed with DNA encoding the hepatitis B surface antigen had been shown to produce a non-particulate antigen having no capability to impart immunity to hepatitis B in humans.

The Supreme Court in New Delhi has laid down guidelines to avoid the registration of deceptively similar trade marks. Saying there should be the maximum possible number of indicators to distinguish two medicinal products, the Court has drawn up a broad seven-point set of rules on the registration of trade marks for medicines.

It was the year of the dot-com bubble, and IP owners like everyone else were obsessed with the net. James Nurton and Tabitha Parker analyze some of 2000’s most interesting cases

The decision of the ECJ rejecting a ban on tobacco advertising and sponsoring was met with applause in the EU. But the European Commission now wants a pan-European prohibition of tobacco advertising in the print media, reports Henning Hartwig