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Rights owners are becoming increasingly creative in the exploitation of their intellectual property rights.

There are signs that Virginia’s eastern district, known since 1990 as the rocket docket, has taken on more than it can chew.

The new Trade Marks Act came into force in January this year, bringing with it key changes for brand owners.

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court has tightened patent filing rules to encourage early filings.

Car maker Porsche has taken action against no less than 130 Internet domain names using its trade marks in an in rem suit.

When Charlene Barshefsky arrives in China in mid-February for the US Trade Representative’s regular visit, she will have her hands full.

Music copyright and the Internet

Recent patent court decisions and also rules of patent practice issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) are changing how the wide spectrum of entities that use computers to conduct fiscal businesses will operate them in the United States, because they now can obtain and assert reliable patent rights against competitors. This legal landscape is evolving from court decisions spanning more than 20 years that define a patent-based framework within which computer technology in particular, computer software can be protected. Software owners have sought such protection because of: (a) recognized limitations in copyrights which protect expression (ie literal lines of computer code), but not ideas (ie the constructs software implement); (b) the substantial financial value software gained during the same decades; and (c) the continuing growth of the businesses that are dependent on computers. It is estimated that by 2001 Internet commerce in the United States will be worth $200 billion. Initially patent protection was not sought for software because of the amount of time involved in obtaining patent rights and also the fact that the Supreme Court (the US court of last resort) has consistently held that laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas are unpatentable subject matter. Software owners perceived tremendous commercial benefits from patent rights, and these perceptions sustained efforts to seek enforceable frameworks for obtaining reliable patent rights.

By means of Act 50/1998, dated December 30, on Tax, Administrative and Social Measures, which develops and executes General State Budgets for 1999, the Spanish Government has amended both Act 11/1986, dated March 20, on patents and utility models and Act 32/1988, dated November 10, which deals with trade marks. The object of these amendments is, first of all, to establish time limits for procedures filed before the Spanish Trade Marks and Patents Office. Secondly, a new Article 87 is added to Act 32/1988, on trade marks. This article establishes the national rules concerning the transformation in a national trade mark of an international trade mark registered in Spain by virtue of the Madrid Protocol, and which has been cancelled by virtue of Article 6.4 of the Protocol.

The need for a clear problem and solution was demonstrated in a recent decision by Stockholm´ s Tingsrätt (The Stockholm City Court), the first instance for all patent litigation in Sweden. The problem/solution approach is one of the basic principles in European patent practice. In case No. T7-19-97 the validity of European patent 0138152 was tried by the City Court.