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Among the causes of action included in the Mexican Trade Mark Law to cancel a trade mark registration, a cancellation action based on lack of use is available. Under the provisions of this law, if a mark is not used by its owner on the goods or services for which it was registered within three years, cancellation of the registration would proceed. This three year period is counted backwards from the filing of the cancellation claim.

No recently decided US patent case has as great a potential for affecting the vast majority of presently existing and still-to-be issued US patents as that which will emerge from the US Supreme Court's impending review, in its upcoming 2001-2002 term, of the Federal Circuit's en banc decision in Festo Corp v Skoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co, Ltd, 234 F 3d 558 (Fed Cir 2000), certiorari granted, June 19 2001.

Interview: Frank Hellwig, Anheuser-Busch James Nurton speaks to Anheuser-Busch’s head of IP about victory in Russia and the battle for the Bud mark

In April this year, the first sound trade mark was granted in Argentina. Gustavo Sena reveals how protection in the country encompasses a variety of non-traditional signs, and provides some illustrations of registered marks

Music Broadcast Pvt, the plaintiff, is a company that has been granted permission by the Indian government to start FM radio stations in various cities. Phonographic Performance Ltd, the defendant, is a collecting society administering the public performance rights of publishers of sound recordings in India. Over the period of a year, Music Broadcast Pvt has invested huge sums of money, and has applied for, and obtained, all the necessary government clearances for commencing private radio broadcasts. The company has also obtained a licence to publicly perform musical works from the Indian Performers Right Society (IPRS), a collecting society which administers the public performance rights of composers and authors in India. The only remaining licence that was required to be obtained to commence the broadcasting of music was a licence from the defendant.

James Nurton, London

The month in words

Following controversies such as the Basmati patent case, IP has achieved a high profile in India. Pravin Anand, of Anand and Anand in Delhi, examines some of the positive developments which have arisen from the new awareness

Canada: WIPO has transferred 31 domain names to the Canadian government, including CanadaCouncil.com and CanadianCustoms.com, after it found that they were registered in bad faith with the intention to resell them. The panel also heard that the sites were used to redirect internet users seeking Canadian government web sites to sites owned by the registrant.

Ingrid Hering, London