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Seattle leaves issues unresolved

We all know that obtaining patent protection internationally requires considerable funds, the average probably being $ 5,000 per country. For an individual inventor this can be a lot of money. However, it can also tighten a company´ s budget since companies generally have to seek patent protection for more than one product. It has thus become standard practice to base the decision for international filings on an early examination report which may be obtained in the country of first filing. It has further become good practice to file an international (PCT) application before the end of one year after the first national filing, thereby claiming convention priority, instead of going directly national at the end of the priority year. If the applicant asks for an international preliminary examination (IPE), there will be a further indication about the chances of obtaining national patents prior to converting the international application into national original applications.

US: A federal judge in San Francisco ruled December 7 that a patent for DNA analysis owned by Swiss biotechnology company Hoffman-La Roche was obtained by deliberately misleading the USPTO and is invalid. US District Judge Vaughn Walker upheld a challenge by Promega which argued that scientists got the patent in 1990 through false claims. Those scientists worked for Cetus, which sold rights to the patent to Hoffman La Roche in 1991. The patented substance is called Taq DNA Polymerase. Cetus inventors had convinced the patent office that they had a substance better than those developed in the 1980s. Hoffman-La Roche is appealing, and contends that the ruling invalidates the patent for only one form of Taq, and not for the more common and lucrative recombinant Taq.

In a recent decision of the appeals division of the Trade Mark Registry, the proprietor of a well known trade mark has for the first time since the introduction of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (TMA 1994) succeeded in preventing a third party from registering the same name for a completely different product.

In a major victory for a foreign patent owner, Pfizer has stopped a local company infringing its patent for fluconazole.

The rapid expansion of e-commerce is forcing countries to look again at how to regulate trade and intellectual property. By Fernando Becerril of Becerril, Coca & Becerril, Mexico City

The BSA is declaring a 30-day truce on UK companies using illegal software, from March 6 2000. The campaign is offering free use of an auditing tool which will check for unlicensed software on company systems.

Federal Circuit claim construction rulings with interesting aspects continue to emerge. Among the most recent ones worthy of note are two which demonstrate a worrisome trend on the part of at least some Federal Circuit judges to focus upon specific claim language rather than determining what the whole claim means.

The EU Copyright Directive and the E-Commerce Directive contradict each other on the question of ISP liability, argue Mark Owen and Richard Penfold of Harbottle & Lewis in London

South Africa has had more than its fair share of controversy recently.