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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

Olivares & Cia, Mexico City

According to the Romanian Trade Mark Law no 84, art 23 and the Regulation for implementing the Law, rule 19, within three months of the date of publication of a trade mark, the owner of an earlier mark or of a well-known mark, the holder of an earlier right in a likeness or surname, a protected geographical indication or a protected industrial design or any other concerned person, may file an opposition to a published mark with the State Office for Inventions and Trade Marks.

ICANN is to set up a working group to make policy recommendations concerning the controversial multilingual domain (MLD) names.

Jeremy Phillips looks again at the function of trade marks in the light of three cases which are heading towards the ECJ

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.

How do you retain control over the design and rights in your website when contracting out the development? Susan Kim outlines the most important business and legal issues to consider when negotiating web site agreements

After much debate and a long gestation period, the EU Council of Ministers finally adopted on April 9 the Directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. At the time of writing, the Directive had not been published in the Official Journal, but this is likely to take place within a few weeks of April 9. Following publication, member states must implement the Directive in national law within 18 months. The intention was that the Copyright Directive should be implemented within a timescale similar to that for the implementation of the E-Commerce Directive, which must be implemented by member states by no later than January 17 2002. The Copyright Directive will have to be implemented by member states by about a year later than that. The Copyright Directive seeks to achieve a number of objectives. These include a degree of harmonization of copyright and related rights laws throughout the Community. The Directive also seeks to introduce protections for technical measures and rights-management information.

A recent High Court decision on copyright infringement has demonstrated the importance of distinguishing the author of a work from the rightful copyright owner of the work. As copyright is not registrable in many countries including Singapore, the locus standi to sue for copyright infringement does not stem from a simple registration certificate. It is always paramount to trace the copyright from the author of the work to the plaintiff in order to ensure that the latter has the requisite capacity to sue.

US membership of the Madrid Protocol may be only a few months away according to Bruce MacPherson, director of external affairs of the International Trademark Association. Thanks to pressure from US companies and the INTA, the legislation to implement membership, first considered in 1989, is nearing the end of its journey through Congress. Attempts to implement the Protocol have not been easy. It has been dogged by conflict with the EU, and lately by complications over Cuba's role.