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"The focus of this case is a very small animal, namely a mouse - to use a poet's description, a 'Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie' (R Burns, "To a Mouse", 1785). In all other respects however, this case is not small." This is how the EPO's Technical Board of Appeal starts its reasons for the decision in the long-fought case on the validity of the European patent covering the Harvard oncomouse (T 315/03). The Board made the decision on July 6 2004, less than a year before the expiry of the patent in June 2005.

Several journalism incidents over the summer have left a big question mark as to where the line is drawn in relation to freedom of the press in the UAE. Early in June, a female reporter for a prominent daily English newspaper was on her way to Greece when she was stopped at the airport and informed that there was a warrant for her arrest. The warrant was prompted by an article she had written in February about a man who was reportedly slashing women in the nearby Emirate of Sharjah. The police said a victim had raised a complaint against the reporter but it soon became clear that the arrest was made by the Sharjah police who later contended that her article may have helped the attacker escape by alerting him to their investigation.

Owners of European IP rights are vulnerable to central attacks on validity at the EPO and OHIM, which can threaten enforcement in national courts. Mark Finn, Konstantin Ewald and Marie-Hélène Lemaitre examine what you can do to counter such an attack in the UK, France and Germany

The tide of franchising regulation continues to sweep across Europe as Belgium brings its new franchise disclosure law into effect. Mark Abell argues that this latest initiative makes it more likely that other EU states will follow the same path

Rights owners used to face difficulties in obtaining evidence from non-public sources to prove infringement in Germany. But, as Reinhardt Schuster, Tilman Müller-Stoy and Birgit Strube explain, recent case law, in particular in Düsseldorf, is changing that practice

Helped along by the attention given to internationally popular events such as the World Cup and the Olympics, naming rights for sports stadiums has become a lucrative business, with increasing challenges for intellectual property lawyers. Robin Lightner Maisashvili and Nina Smith explain why

Companies working in the field of biotechnology could face limited protection for their inventions following the introduction of a revised patent law in Germany. Harald von Campenhausen outlines the pitfalls and how rights owners can best avoid them

The manner in which corporations develop and manage their IP software has changed considerably over the past few years. Long gone are the days when the focus was simply filing data and managing due dates. Today there is a more proactive approach to IP management, which, in turn, has set new standards and challenges for IP professionals.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has dealt a further blow to weak trade marks. In a ruling on September 15, the Court upheld the rejection of an application for a figurative mark comprising the word BioID. written in a bold Arial typeface for goods in classes 9, 38 and 42.

On the eve of the launch of .eu, Nick Wood examines the relationship between IP owners and ccTLD administrators in Europe and calls for greater harmonization. A table overleaf profiles the 32 ccTLD registries in Europe and provides information on registering domain names and resolving disputes in each one