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In the recent Festo decision, the Federal Circuit unveiled a new approach to analyzing the doctrine of equivalents and the companion doctrine of prosecution history estoppel. In light of this new approach, Allen R Jensen and Stacy D Lewis provide some guidelines for patentees

European electrical goods companies have teamed up with Chinese government inspectors to raid the factories of Chinese counterfeiters who are costing the industry millions of euros a year. The raids in Guangdong province in south China targeted factories producing counterfeit goods such as kettles, plugs, sockets and cookware being made to European companies' designs.

Business methods should remain unpatentable. That was the clear message coming from the UK last month. In a statement issued on March 13, the government stood firm in its position not to allow the patentability of business methods and to allow no change in the guidelines for patenting software. The government's stance is likely to bring the UK into direct conflict with the European Patent Office, the United States and the UK software industry, which believes it is losing out to its American colleagues.

A recent EPO decision has challenged the conventional exclusion on double patenting. Neil Thomson asks where the decision leaves EPO practice, and what impact it will have on proceedings in the UK

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

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.

The past year has seen a greater degree of maturity in the processing of trade mark disputes and predictability in foreseeing their outcome. Jeremy Phillips reviews 10 decisions from across Europe which symbolize the trend

The month in figures