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The following comments relate to the laws and rules in Mexico regarding copyright protection terms, in accordance with different laws in force in Mexico since 1947. The purpose of this note is to explain how they could have impacted on foreign works of authorship. The author chose the case of US works because of the question NAFTA has posed, and because extending it to other countries laws would have made this note very long.

The Court of First Instance of Madrid has rendered the first Spanish judgment concerning the so-called Year 2000 chaos (Y2K), that is to say, the chaos derived from the fact that most computing systems are unable to differentiate the year 2000 from the year 1900, as they read only the last two numbers.

The Patents Amendment Bill, only for allowing Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMR) to foreign and Indian companies in the pharmaceutical and agro-chemical sectors, has been passed by Parliament. However, product patents will not be allowed before 2005.

A patent application was filed in the Czech Republic with the priority claim of a German utility model application, but after the publication of the said German utility model application. This fact was used by a petitioner, who filed a request, to cancel the patent granted on the mentioned Czech patent application in a first instance proceeding.

GERMANY: Nicolai von Funer has become a partner of Von Funer Ebbinghaus Finck Hano in Munich. The firm has also opened an office in Uluaanbaatar in Outer Mongolia: Euormarkpat Mongolia Ltd PO Box 58 Baga Toiruu 31 Ulaanbaatar 46 Mongolia Tel: +976 1 31 30 97 Fax: +976 1 32 55 87 E-mail: monpatent@magicnet.mn

The Supreme Court of Cassation has confirmed in a decision dated October 28 1998 and now published that section 1-bis of the Trade Mark Law prevents the registrant from the enforcement of his exclusive rights against third parties who use his trade mark, if it is necessary to indicate the destination of a product or service, especially as an accessory thereto or as a spare part thereof.

On April 1 1999, the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (the Act) came into force in Malaysia. The objectives are to promote national policies for the communications and multimedia industries, not least of which is to establish Malaysia as a major global centre for communications and multimedia information and content services; to establish a supporting licensing and regulatory framework, and to regulate the Communications and Multimedia Commission. Interestingly, the Act expressly denies any attempt to censor the Internet.

In Estonia the Integrated Circuits Protection Act, already adopted by the Parliament on November 25 1998, came into force on March 16 1999. This Act follows the principles of the Washington 1989 Treaty, TRIPs Agreement and EU Directive 87/54/EEC on the legal protection of topographies of semiconductor products.

A company's intellectual capital includes a lot more than mere patents and trade marks

Generic companies around the world are enjoying extended rights to test drugs pre-patent expiry