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Things are moving again at WIPO. That was the clear message from IP negotiators speaking at the Fordham IP conference in New York

The aesthetic or ornamental features of a product can help differentiate one product from another, especially when both products serve a similar function and purpose. Hence a design registration is a valuable commercial asset to the owner.

China's reforms, to the law and to prosecution, plus a summary of the articles in this year's China IP Focus

Has China turned a corner in its commitment to protecting IP? A series of headline-grabbing court rulings at the end of 2005 in which Chinese judges upheld the rights of IP owners certainly suggests that foreign businesses can have far more success in enforcing their rights than is commonly believed. In the space of two months, Starbucks won an order for damages from would-be rival Shanghai Xing Ba Ke, Italian chocolate maker Ferrero stopped a copycat confectioner from selling look-alike products and five luxury goods companies persuaded a Beijing court to hold a landlord jointly liable for sales of fakes in his market.

The search for prior art is a key component of the patent prosecution process, but it can often be time-consuming and costly. The US Patent Office issued 382,139 patents in 2004 alone, and as more and more patents are being filed, the need for accurate and effective prior art searching becomes even more essential. Patent offices in most major IP jurisdictions will perform patent searches. However companies are still choosing to scour patent office records, trade journals and patent databases themselves, to verify that no identical, similar or partially similar patents already exist. Although there is no affirmative duty to conduct a prior art search before filing a patent application, inventors and their attorneys are required to submit any prior art that they are aware of. A comprehensive search can therefore help support not only a patent application, but also licence negotiations, re-examinations and litigation further down the line. After all, an issued patent will stand up better in court with prior art to substantiate it.

In a preliminary ruling in a case forwarded to the ECJ by the Austrian Oberster Patent– und Markensenat (OPM) and closely monitored by the Austrian IP community, Advocate–General Damaso Ruiz–Jarabo Colomer delivered his opinion on October 26 2006 (C–246/05 – Häupl v Lidl). If followed by the ECJ, the opinion will have a revolutionary impact on non–use legislation and jurisprudence throughout Europe.

On April 1 Korea concluded historic free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with the US. Korea has a $1 trillion economy and is the United States's seventh largest partner in trading goods, while the US is Korea's second largest market, importing 17% of Korean exports. In general, the FTA will eliminate tariffs and other restraints on trade in addition to strengthening economic ties between the two countries.

As a result of the enactment of the Free Trade Agreement between Peru and the US on January 15, 2009, Legislative Decree No 1075, which approves complementary dispositions to Decision 486 of the Andean Community, also came into force.

The first case under the .au Domain Administration's dispute resolution policy (auDRP) to result in an order to transfer a domain name, has developed into an argument over the fairness of the process.

Office issues clarification