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?The issue is how effective the central government will be in enforcing regulations in the local municipalities where there are a lot of vested interests who want to keep infringement going?

In SmithKline Beecham v Generics (UK) Ltd (Jacob J Patents Court; October 23 2001), the Court injuncted Generics (UK) Ltd until trial (now fixed for March 2002) from launching its paroxetine pharmaceutical in the UK. Paroxetine is an active ingredient in some pharmaceuticals for treating depression. SmithKline Beecham's UK patent 2 297 550 covered only particular forms of paroxetine hydrochloride anyhdrate. Generics denied that its form of paroxetine fell within the patent and attacked validity too, but was nevertheless injuncted, pending trial.

The rights of authors and artists over works, including unpublished manuscripts, under EU copyright harmonization legislation has been clarified following a UK High Court decision involving the estate of author James Joyce and Macmillan Publishers.

One of the main reasons for which trade mark registrations in Mexico are denied is descriptiveness, as a trade mark shall not represent an unjustified benefit for a merchant or a service provider against his or her competitors.

The Madrid Protocol is a threat or opportunity depending on where you are standing. Ralph Cunningham reports from Hong Kong about how firms in Asia are dealing with their countries’ membership of the international trade mark agreement

Latin America has placed its foot firmly forward in defining the new frontiers of what can be registered as a trade mark. Ingrid Hering reports

Legal changes and commercial needs have opened up new opportunities for trade mark owners in North America. Ingrid Hering reports on how the US and Canada are responding to demands for more novel trade marks

Malcolm Royal, president, International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys

In the second part of the annual World IP Survey, James Nurton, Ingrid Hering and Ralph Cunningham analyze the latest trends in trade mark and copyright practice around the world. We also reveal the leading firms in our annual poll

Mary Helen Sears In two relatively recent decisions, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has clarified and reaffirmed the well-established US legal doctrine of "first sale" and its corollaries regarding permissible repair and impermissible (and therefore infringing) reconstruction of patented articles and patented processes associated with them. Jazz Photo Corp v International Trade Commission, 59 USPQ 2d 1907 (Fed Cir August 21 2001) and Surfco Hawaii v Fin Control Systems Pty Ltd, 60 USPQ 2d 1056 (Fed Cir September 5 2001) both rest upon a fundamental of US personal property (or "chattel") law, whereby the purchaser within the United States of an article covered by a United States patent, or one that embodies a process covered by such a patent, has the same individual private property right to use and dispose of it as he or she enjoys with respect to a purchased article not covered by a viable US patent. These rights have been recognized by American courts since at least as early as the Supreme Court decision in Wilson v Simpson, 50 US (9 How) 109 (1850) and have been reiterated many times during the ensuing century and a half.