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Charlie McCreevy Internal market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy addressed the European Parliament's legal affairs committee on February 2 to help him form his opinion "on where to go next" on the EU's IP laws.

Sam Mamudi, New York

In the US, federal judicial courts compete with each other to handle patent litigation. Roderick McKelvie and Scott Weidenfeller examine whether recent reforms in the Western District of Pennsylvania will attract more cases to its court

A recent ruling by a US court has triggered a debate about worldwide computer and communication systems and the reach of US patents. John Kenny and Sascha Schalkwijk examine the arguments behind the celebrated Blackberry case

Franchising is booming in China as foreign investment increases. Mark Abell and Tina (Yanfei) Ran examine whether the new Franchise Regulation will give it still more impetus, and provide an overview of other relevant legislation

Australia: Eli Lilly persuaded a judge at a court of first instance to declare Pfizer's method of treatment patent for Viagra invalid. Justice Heeley said that the patent lacked inventive step and was not fairly based. The decision allows Eli Lilly to continue to supply its own impotence treatment drug, Cialis, to the Australian market. China: The International Intellectual Property Alliance, the US film, music and software lobby group, urged the government to start immediate talks with China in the WTO over its IP rights record, and to put China on its section 301 Priority Watch List. China: Figures released by the Supreme People's Court show that Chinese courts decided 8,832 civil IP violation cases last year, a rise of more than 46% from 2003. The number of copyright cases rose by 70% in the past year. China: The results of a recent survey conducted by Nanjing University, and supported by the China National Social Science Foundation, make distressing reading for rights owners. According to the study, which mainly focused on urban residents, 90% of respondents said that they do not feel shame or guilt when purchasing fake products. In addition, 62% said that they could not distinguish between fake and genuine goods, while 16% said that they had never received any information regarding piracy issues. Japan: Local software developer Justsystem lost a patent infringement case brought by Matsushita, which accused Justsystem of infringing its patent for a pop-up help feature. Justsystem pledged to appeal the ruling but lawyers say that an appeal court defeat for them could herald a rise in software patent litigation in Japan. Singapore: Singapore has signed up to the International Performances and Phonograms Treaty, and the Copyright Treaty, both administered by WIPO. The treaties will take effect on April 17.

Emma Barraclough, Hong Kong

John Mitchell, CEO, AllVoice Computing and chair, Patent Reform Group

Patent terms of advanced technologies in Korea have gradually become shorter as patent examination procedures get longer. To resolve this deficiency in the Korean patent system, officials have revealed a new strategy to reduce the patent examination period from 22 months to 10 months.

The recently promulgated Indian Patent Ordinance indirectly recognizes "new uses" as patentable in India. Thus far, new use of a known substance was unpatentable. Section 3 of the Indian Patents Act 1970 excluded "new use" from the scope of patentable inventions. The recent amendment enables pharmaceutical companies to protect new uses of patented drug molecules, which is a move welcomed by the global pharmaceutical companies.