LAST EIPR FOR 2004

The December 2004 issue of the European Intellectual Property Review has now been published by Sweet & Maxwell. It contains, among other things, the following features:

* “Divided by a Common Language” by Nicholas Fox (Beresfords), on the different techniques employed by English and American courts in the interpretation of patent claims. Although this article was written pre-Kirin Amgen, much of its thrust is intentionally historical and its value will not diminish in direct proportion to its distance from that impressive House of Lords decision.

* “A Practical Approach to the Problem of Open Source and Software Patents” by blogger Mikko Välimäki (Helsinki University of Technology) -- a positive piece on how the needs of software creators can be protected whether they are the inventors or their competitors.

* “Not Such a Crafty Corkscrew” by Campbell Thompson and Genevieve Wilkinson (Freehills, Melbourne) on the question whether a Chinese-designed corkscrew constituted an artistic work for copyright purposes.