Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CREATION of a Community Patent Court, with European Union (EU) jurisdiction, has been formally proposed by the European Commission, in its bid to harmonise and simplify EU intellectual property protection.

If ministers approve the idea, it could ultimately end the current system where national and European patents are challenged in national courts, sometimes creating contradictory judgements and legal confusion.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union is to pay for a new software system, computers and other information technology equipment to improve the functioning of the judiciary in the former Yugoslavian republic of Macedonia. The EU aid – worth in total Euro 1.9 million – follows a report detailing serious inadequacies in the legal system in Macedonia, including the fact that judges there had to deal with about 800 cases annually compared to a maximum of 300 in the EU itself.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
JUSTICE and home affairs ministers of the 15 European Union (EU) member states (and the 10 countries due to join the EU on May1) are close to an agreement on a framework directive establishing the mutual recognition principle in matters involving the confiscation of the proceeds of crime.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce is fighting a legal decision it fears could make United States courts de facto global anti-trust regulators, even in cases with a negligible impact on the USA. It has filed an amicus curiae brief to the US Supreme Court, asking it to overturn a DC Court of Appeals ruling allowing non-US plaintiffs to bring foreign anti-trust claims to American courts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNET public consultation has been launched by the European Commission into a planned directive laying down clear rules on the transfer of a company’s registered office from one European Union (EU) country to another.

EU internal market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein said “I encourage all businesses, associations and lawyers with an interest in company law to respond.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL meeting of healthcare associations at the World Health Organisation (WHO) has agreed a code of conduct calling on doctors to not only advise patients to quit smoking, but to give up tobacco themselves. “Studies show that even brief counselling by health professionals on the dangers of smoking is one of the most cost-effective methods of reducing” tobacco use, said the WHO.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
THE CEYLON Tobacco Company Ltd (CTC) reaped a trading profit of SLRupees 1,394 million (US$14 million) in its last financial year (ending December 31, 2003), 10 per cent up on the previous year. Total 2003 revenue was SLRupees 30.1 billion (US$300 million), from which CTC paid out SLRupees 25 billion (US$250 million) in excise and sales taxes.…

BY MARK ROWE
MORE than 4,000 fake Cuban cigars on sale in tobacco stores across in Moscow have been seized in an anti-counterfeit operation. Police from the economic crimes department of Russia’s interior ministry confiscated a total of 20 counterfeit brands worth Roubles 2.8 million (US$1 million).…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
INDIA’S Dalmia Consumer Care company has launched a chewing gum designed to wean pan masala users from their habit. Its Chabaaza gumlets are priced at INDRupees 1 per pack (designed to imitate traditional pan packaging) and, whilst delivering pan-like taste, contain no supari or other addictive ingredients.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
AN INDIAN confectioner is attempting to appeal to middle-class consumers’ thrift by lowering prices for its products. Mangalore, Karnataka-based Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Co-operative Ltd (Campco) is relaunching lines such as Turbo, but in smaller INDRupees3 packs.…