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With the creation of an Intellectual Property Prosecution Office, as well as the substitution of the inquisitive criminal system, (in substitution of the accusatory system), Venezuela's judicial branch has expanded its range in protecting patentees from patent infringement.

A new trade mark law came into effect on June 1 2000 through the Emergency (Trade Marks) Order 1999. The new law is based on the UK Trade Marks Act 1994 and repeals the old Trade Marks Act (Cap 98).

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on April 14 2000 handed down a decision that required the Director (prior to March 29 2000, the Commissioner) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office to retract his own earlier refusal to permit a patent applicant to correct, pursuant to PCT Rule 91.1 and 37 CFR 1.183 (a US Patent and Trademark Office rule) an incorrect patent application number contained in a Demand for International Preliminary Examination. This decision, Helfgott & Karas, PC v Dickinson, 54 USP Q2d 1425 (Fed Cir 2000) concludes that the Director "acted arbitrarily and capriciously in dismissing the plaintiff's petition to correct the erroneous Demand for International Preliminary Examination", inter alia, because PCT Rule 91.1 is legally binding on the Director and allows the correction of "obvious errors" in certain PCT filings, including such Demands.

Deals

As global protection becomes more desirable and more expensive, the new Patent Law Treaty promises to make the process less painful. But progress towards harmonization is slow and pain-staking. Tabitha Parker reports

The legal status of information available on the internet has been cast into doubt again, with the latest copyright case brought by a UK estate agent.

Related Information

The US Patent and Trademark Office is facing the loss of 25% of next year's income, under budget proposals in the House Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill. The cuts come as business is soaring: patent applications were up 12% last year, and trade mark applications increased 40%.

Xerox has lost its three-year battle with 3Com over patent infringement of its "Unistroke" software on the basis that there was "no genuine issue to any material fact". The decision on June 8, in Rochester, New York, by US district judge Michael A Telesca, destroys Xerox's hopes of receiving royalties on each Palm handheld organiser sold.

The past year has seen a lot of activity in the UK courts. Tessa Bucks, of Boult Wade Tennant in London, provides an overview of the most important cases and developments