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The pharmaceutical industry has been given another month to sharpen its arguments as it challenges the South African government over patent rights. But it is also fighting against charities, the media and public opinion. Tabitha Parker reports

The month in figures

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.

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.

Eastern Europe is an unfortunate bridge between pirates to the east and markets to the west. Tabitha Parker finds that this is making enforcement difficult

The European parliament has finally approved the Copyright Directive. The Directive aims to harmonize protection for copyright protected works and update European copyright law for the internet age. It should now be implemented in each member state within the next 18 months.

The US is ready to take punitive action against Ukraine, if the eastern European country does not clamp down on copyright pirates immediately.

Could the Napster saga finally be ending? On February 20, two weeks after losing a court battle to stay alive, the music-swapping company offered to pay $1 billion to settle the dispute once and for all.