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The frictions between the laws regulating the ownership and exercise of IP rights and anti-competitive agreements are known and long-standing. What is less widely understood is the extent to which this situation will change following recent reforms to UK and EU competition law, explains Guy Lougher

Trade marks that include a design may suffer variations during the time they are used. This occurs due to modernization imposed by fashion. Not even well-known marks are exempt from periodical updating, even when their essential characteristics stay the same.

The Korean Patent Act Article 42 (3) provides that the detailed description of an invention shall state the purpose, construction, and "effect" of the invention in such a manner that it may easily be carried out by a person skilled in the art. Thus, the description of the "effect" of the invention in the specification is mandatory under the Korean Patent Law.

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.