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Michiel Rijskijk Will the international exhaustion rule be applicable in Europe in the near future, just as The Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden knew it a long time ago in their respective trade mark laws? What could the consequences thereof be for industry, specifically the pharmaceutical industry? Case law in The Netherlands at the end of the 1950s provides that when goods protected by a trade mark have been brought on the market with the consent of the proprietor, the trade mark right in respect of that product is exhausted. This international exhaustion rule is also included in the Benelux Trade Mark Act of 1971. Under the influence of industry lobbying inter alia more voices were raised in the 1960s and 1970s demanding that the European market should be protected against parallel imports. The European Court of Justice on October 31 1971 in the Centrafarm Winthrop case (C-16/74) for the first time ruled that the proprietor of a trade mark is not permitted to prohibit a product being brought onto the market in one EEC member state if it was brought on the market in another EEC member state with the consent of the proprietor.

Music Broadcast Pvt, the plaintiff, is a company that has been granted permission by the Indian government to start FM radio stations in various cities. Phonographic Performance Ltd, the defendant, is a collecting society administering the public performance rights of publishers of sound recordings in India. Over the period of a year, Music Broadcast Pvt has invested huge sums of money, and has applied for, and obtained, all the necessary government clearances for commencing private radio broadcasts. The company has also obtained a licence to publicly perform musical works from the Indian Performers Right Society (IPRS), a collecting society which administers the public performance rights of composers and authors in India. The only remaining licence that was required to be obtained to commence the broadcasting of music was a licence from the defendant.

Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly relying on their brands to sustain sales on drugs that come off patent. Ingrid Hering examines how to build up brand recognition and prevent infringements

Business methods. What is or isn’t patentable? As countries turn to the EPO for direction Tom Ekeberg of Onsagers in Oslo decribes the efforts underway to make the distinction clear

The Brussels Court of Appeal recently delivered the first judgment in a Belgian torpedo case. Remco EP de Ranitz of Arnold & Siedsma in The Hague examines the implications of the decision for patent owners and the future of the Belgian torpedo strategy

Spain is Europe’s leading importer and cultivator of genetically modified corn. Yolanda Echeverría of Clarke Modet & Co in Madrid examines EU directives controlling this industry and explores the economic and health benefits of transgenic products

Johannes Lang, Jörk Zwicker and Reinhardt Schuster of Bardehle Pagenberg Dost Altenburg Geissler Isenbruck in Munich analyze recent patent developments in the German courts

Among the former USSR countries only Latvia and Lithuania provide for the extension of European patents. Vladimir Anohin and Voldemars Osmans of Agency Tria Robit in Riga analyze the benefits of such protection