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The Korean government has traditionally held the rights to inventions in national and public universities. But new technology transfer legislation will change that. Researchers will now have an incentive to commercialize their inventions, writes Man-Gi Paik

? China: An appeal court in Shanghai has banned seven former Unilever employees from appealing any further against a verdict finding them guilty of making fake shampoo worth Rmb1.27 million

The German Trademark Act (section 8(2)) states that trade marks cannot be registered in the following situations:

The selection, preparation and use of experts in patent litigation is a significant aspect of any trial. Bill Schuurman and Nicole Stafford explain how greater judicial scrutiny in the US has made the handling of experts even more critical

Russia's transition to a market economy has created a tangle of proprietary rights. Valeri Guerman explains some of the problems facing trade mark owners

One case that has cast some light on co-ownership of trade marks in Singapore is Ng Chu Chong (trading as Grand Am Fashion Enterprise) v Ng Swee Choon & Ors (Suit No 1108 of 2001/E). Here the plaintiff and his sister, the first defendant, entered into a partnership called Grand Am Fashion Enterprise (Grand Am) to manufacture and sell fashion apparel under the trademark, McBlue. The trademark was created by the first defendant for the partnership and was registered in their joint names, trading as Grand Am. Subsequently, the first defendant withdrew from the partnership due to an impending bankruptcy but continued to work for the plaintiff as an employee. The plaintiff thereafter discovered that another partnership belonging to the first defendant's sister-in-law, named GA Fashion Apparel (GA) was marketing goods bearing the McBlue trade mark. The plaintiff brought an action against the defendants for trade mark infringement and applied for permanent injunction. The first defendant argued that she was entitled as a joint proprietor to authorize GA to purchase and deal with goods bearing the McBlue trade mark.

There are grounds under the UK Trade Marks Act (1994, section 3(6)) for refusal or invalidity of registration where a trade mark is applied for in bad faith. The provision derives from the European Trade Marks Harmonization Directive (89/104) and has a counterpart in EU Trade Mark Regulation 40/94 (article 51(1)(b)). Bad faith is not defined and its scope has produced a divide between UK and EU case law over the need for subjective dishonesty on the part of the trade mark applicant (Trillium, First Cancellation Division of OHIM, C000053447/1, March 28 2000).

Programme formats can be a goldmine but to what extent can they attract IP rights? Lyndsay Gough looks at some of the issues facing those seeking to exploit and protect them

Michiel Rijsdijk of Arnold + Siedsma in The Hague examines why the European Court of Justice decided not to annul the biotechnology directive

Antonina Pakharenko-Anderson of Pakharenko & Partners in Kiev examines how to enforce IP rights in Ukraine under the revised laws