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The amendments to the Russian Patent Law were adopted on February 7 2003 and came into force on March 12 2003. The amendments brought the Russian Patent Law in alignment with the provisions of the TRIPs Agreement.The most important of them are the following.

The US and Singapore governments are near to formally signing the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA). The USSFTA is the first of its kind that the US has entered into with a country in Asia since the US Congress passed the Trade Act of 2002. The US has entered into few other bilateral free trade agreements with countries, including Jordan and Israel, aside from its multilateral free trade partners Canada and Mexico in the North America Free Trade Agreement. Singapore has also only entered into a few other free trade pacts, including with Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and the European Free Trade Association.

In India, there is no specific legislation for protection of confidential information or trade secrets. However, courts in India have consistently applied principles of common law and breach of contract in enforcing claims for protection of such information. These principles were reiterated by the High Court of Bombay in an order delivered on March 27 2003, dismissing an appeal by Zee Telefilms, a well-known TV production company in India, and upholding the order of an interim injunction granted by a single judge at first instance. By this order, the single judge had restrained Zee from proceeding with broadcasting its television serial Kanhaiyya on principles of copyright infringement and breach of confidential information.

? Australia: Gilbert & Tobin, the law firm, CyberResearch, a technology commercialization and investment adviser, and Intellectual Capital Management Group have launched realiseIP, a strategic intellectual asset management company, aimed at helping Australian companies "provide shareholders with greater return on investments, improve corporate governance, increase competitiveness and reduce the risk of costly IP infringement".

Stéphanie Bodoni, London

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is set to reopen its patent challenge and antitrust complaint against pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline after a US court threw out an earlier attempt.

Malaysia has become the latest country in Asia to set up its own domain name dispute resolution policy to deal with disputes concerning the registration of country-code top-level domain names.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued its State Street Bank decision in July 1998. Following this decision, a large number of computer-related andbusiness model patent applications were filed and granted inthe US. In contrast to that, it is an implicit requirement of the EPC that any invention must have a technical character. Thus, a scheme for, for example, organizing a commercial operation, being of a pure commercial nature, even if run on a computer, would lack technical character and would therefore be excluded from patentability. In the case of a PCT application based on a US patent application which relates to a computer-related or business model invention, this difference between the EPC and US patent law is a problem when entering into the European phase. Regarding search, the EPO examiner has the discretion to do a complete search, a partial search or even no search at all, depending on the extent to which the claims refer to technical subject-matter. In the last two cases, the EPO transmits a declaration under Rule 45 EPC (EPO Form 1507) stating that it was not possible to carry out a meaningful search into the state of the art. The following alternative steps are possible in such a situation:

The State Council announced on December 28 2002 the amendments to the Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law which became effective on February 1 2003. The new amendments effectively extend the time limit within which PCT applications under Chapter I can enter the national phase in China to 30 months (from the priority date) from 20 months previously. In accordance with the amendments, the subject extension shall only apply to a PCT application designating China where its 20-month time limit has not expired as of February 1 2003.

Managers of some of the world’s most recognizable trade marks tell Sam Mamudi about their filing strategies, relationships with outside counsel, and their favourite countries in which to register their marks.