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Georgia is an independent state which gained independence after the disintegration of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the decade. Prior to independence, all patent matters were dealt with centrally from Moscow which inevitably affected the potential of local patent experts.

The Polish Parliament (Seym) continues to work on improving the system of industrial property protection. It seems the long-lasting and thorough discussions on legal solutions which are to be introduced are coming to an end. However, it does not seem possible that the new Industrial Property Law will come into force on January 1 2000, as it was suggested by the Polish government. The above date of implementation of new regulations adapted to the standards of the European Union would be highly desirable because as from January 1 2000 Poland will be fully bounded by the TRIPs provisions.

The Mexican Law of Industrial Property (LIP) recognizes as a source of rights to use a trade mark registration and a bona fide use prior to a filing date of a particular trade mark registration for the same or similar trade mark or prior to the date of first use mentioned by the registrant in the application papers.

Malaysia passed and gazetted the Franchise Act in December 1998 and it is expected to come into force in the near future. Once in force, the Franchise Act 1998 will apply throughout Malaysia to any franchise in Malaysia. At present, there is no franchise legislation and the franchise industry is supervised by the franchise division of the Malaysian government under the purview of the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development.

Shape trade marks are registrable in Australia by virtue of the Trade Marks Act 1995. As yet there is little case law on the subject but a recent decision of the Australian Trade Marks Office, Re Chocolaterie Guylian NV, gives an insight into considerations that will be made during examination of applications for registration of shape trade marks.

Despite the existence of the European patent, there is little cohesion between countries when it comes to enforcing or challenging patent rights.

In a recent decision of the appeals division of the Trade Mark Registry, the proprietor of a well known trade mark has for the first time since the introduction of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (TMA 1994) succeeded in preventing a third party from registering the same name for a completely different product.

People, Laws and Courts

The Philippines is about to get its first taste of domain name litigation. On September 27, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) sued Gerry Kaimo and the Philippine League for Democratic Communications (PLDTI) to secure ownership of the pldt.com domain name

Organizations from retailers to charities are continually looking for new ways to exploit their brands.