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Amidst political turmoil sweeping across the country and stiff negotiations with the IMF the former Russian Government did not leave without attention attention to the problems of intellectual property. It was aware of the necessity to keep a more attentive eye on those issues. Several weeks ago it issued a Decree No 413. The Decree concerns copyright and neighbouring rights.

For the first time ever the MPA (Motion Picture Association), which represents Hollywood’s seven leading film studios around the world, is instituting civil proceedings in Hong Kong to recover losses from optical disc piracy. In another first, the MPA is joined in the action by the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry): the two organizations have never jointly taken part in a civil action before.

Computer software is currently protected in Russia by the Law of the Russian Federation on the Legal Protection of Computer Programs and Databases of September 23 1992. At that time this was an important step toward securing protection of rights in a quickly developing field of human activities. The law provided for voluntary registration of software. In fact, it was very similar to the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights which protected literary, musical and similar works.

It is well known that European legislation, in accordance with the principle of the single market, provides for the free circulation of products within the European Union. Any attempt to use the exclusive rights conferred by a trade mark in order to prevent or limit the circulation of products within the territory of the Union is coherently considered as illicit by case law. This is in accordance with the so-called principle of trade mark exhaustion.

Since Estonia started EU accession negotiations in April 1998, one of the main tasks has been to harmonize Estonian legislation with EU Law. Although in the beginning of 1998 the Estonian Trade Mark Law was extensively amended to comply with the Harmonization Directive 89/104 and CTM Regulation No 40/94, there are still remarkable differences.

The Senate and the House of Representatives each passed IP bills in August designed to increase the odds in favour of trade mark and patent owners.

Accelerated examination system

In a recent US decision (State Street v Signature Financial Corporation), business methods were found patentable in the USA. Under Australian legislation, however, a mere scheme or plan is not patentable.

Software patents may be a hot topic, but copyright protection is still the first port of call for many computer companies.

In Australian pre-grant patent opposition proceedings, grounds available to the opponent include lack of inventive step. Lack of inventive step is established if it is shown that the invention claimed would have been obvious to a non-inventive skilled worker, equipped with the common general knowledge (CGK) in the field of the invention in Australia at the priority date of the application. CGK is that which is part of the ordinary equipment of all persons engaged in the relevant art. The nature of the CGK must be established by evidence. An appropriate deponent for this purpose is clearly a non-inventive skilled worker in the field of the invention.