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In a landmark ruling, the Community Trade Marks Office has accepted an application for retail services. Lee Curtis explains that its decision will be welcomed by trade mark applicants in all EU member states

The German Federal Supreme Court recently issued two decisions on the registrability of slogans (Radio von hier, Radio wie wir and Partner with the Best, both dated December 8 1999), which have terminated an ongoing controversy in Germany. According to these decisions, the requirements for distinctiveness of slogans are not any greater than for regular word marks.

Under Australian law it is possible to make post grant amendments to a patent either before the Commissioner of Patents, or in the Federal Court of Australia. Typically an application for amendment to the Federal Court is lodged when the patentee is about to commence infringement proceedings on the basis of advice that amendments are required to correct defects or to limit the relevance of prior art. In a recent case, Gambro Pty Ltd v Fresenius Medical Care South East Asia Pty Ltd, amendments were sought to limit the field of invention to the area of real interest fluids for dialysis and related procedures in order to strengthen the patentee´ s position in a cross claim for invalidity.

From Israel to Nigeria, governments are shaping a new interest in high-tech industries. But they need to sort out IP enforcement first, reports Emily Downes

You may not put the European Patent Office top of the list when applying for e-commerce patents. Think again. Johannes Lang reveals that protection is just as powerful as in the US, and in some cases even broader

The 30 countries profiled in MIP’s Emerging Markets Survey will be among the big markets of tomorrow. Which makes it vital to know where to find the top firms. On the following pages, we reveal the results of our fourth annual survey, and analyze the latest trends

The BSA is declaring a 30-day truce on UK companies using illegal software, from March 6 2000. The campaign is offering free use of an auditing tool which will check for unlicensed software on company systems.

The International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition has submitted its recommendations to Charlene Barchefsky, the US trade representative, as part of the annual “Special 301” review of countries with poor IP protection.

A federal judge has blocked a Canadian-based web site from broadcasting US TV shows. The case is the first test of how effectively copyright law can be applied to Internet transmissions.

Counterfeiting costs business more than $1bn a year in Russia, according to the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights.