Bringing eBay into line

As the largest and best-known internet auction service providerin the global village, eBay has become an immensely popularfacility for offering goods for sale before the widest audience.The advantages of eBay are that it provides a forum for thesale of niche goods where prospective purchasers are difficultto target; by cutting out the retailer (and his mark-up) itenables goods to be sold more cheaply; it is almost impossibleto police effectively; and also provides a veil of anonymity     

A bid for recognition

Last year this journal carried a note¹ on the world's firstauction of intellectual property rights, held in San Franciscobefore the full glare of publicity. Like the Wright Brothers'first manned flight more than a century before it, the firstmanned IP auction attracted a mixture of responses. From thecynical and from those whose interests are served by more traditionalmeans of matching IP vendor and purchaser came words of criticism     

Good stuff, shame about the bad press

A poll of readers of this journal would probably indicate ahigh level of support for the principle that IP should be protected;an awareness of its role in the development and exploitationof new products and services; a belief in its inherent fairnessin balancing the moral and economic needs of its owners andtheir competitors; and a conviction that IP was a positive forcefor the betterment of the world we presently     

When the figures just don't figure

Last year I received from Jean Pire (Gevers & Partners,Belgium) some data concerning the success rate of litigantsin Office for Harmonisation (OHIM) proceedings involving Communitytrade marks and applications. These figures, drawn from Gevers'database of Board of Appeal, Opposition Division and CancellationDivision decisions, provide food for thought. A curious statistic is the rate at which parties to OHIM proceedingsfail to comply     

Strength or weakness?

Doing the electronic rounds, at the tail end of 2007, was amuch-forwarded email circular concerning an article in the 7November issue of China Intellectual Property News by YongshunCheng. The author, a former senior judge and deputy directorof the Intellectual Property Division of the Beijing High People'sCourt, currently directs the Beijing Intellectual Property Institute. According to this circular the article, translated into English,argues that the proposed US patent reform bill     

Obviousness and IP: time to reconsider

On 6 February, the day this editorial was written, the UnitedKingdom Patent Office surprised members of the local intellectualproperty professions when it launched an unexpected discussionpaper, Consultation on the Inventive Step Requirement in UnitedKingdom Patent Law and Practice and sought informed responseby 31 May. On the assumption that the provisions of patent law are intendedto reflect a balance between the complementary     

Constitutional Right to a Healthy Environment in Belgium

Since 1994, the right to a healthy environment has been recognized under Article 23 of the Belgian Constitution. It contains a standstill clause, which precludes the authorities from reducing substantially the level of environmental protection without reasons of public interest. The effectiveness of Article 23 of the Constitution has remained unclear for a long period. Therefore, the legal protection of the environment has more often been achieved through reliance on the right to respect for private and family life, guaranteed by Article 22 of the Belgian Constitution and by Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), both of which have provisions with direct effect. The scope of protection of Article 23 of the Constitution is broader than the one provided by Article 22 of the Constitution and Article 8 of the ECHR, which is limited to nuisances with an effect on the person's private or family sphere, excluding a more general protection of the environment. However, the standstill provision in Article 23 only precludes the State from decreasing the level of protection of a healthy environment where this protection is provided for by law. It does not preclude retrogressions regarding 'factual' situations. In this regard, claims founded on Article 8 of the ECHR and Article 22 of the Constitution still have their utility. As a result, Article 23 and Article 22 of the Constitution and Article 8 of the ECHR are complementary to a certain degree.     

The continuing salience of race: Discrimination and diversity in South Africa

The end of apartheid has brought a resurgence of research into racial identities, attitudes and behaviour in South Africa. The legacy of systematic racial ordering and discrimination under apartheid is that South Africa remains deeply racialised, in cultural and social terms, as well as deeply unequal, in terms of the distribution of income and opportunities. South Africans continue to see themselves in the racial categories of the apartheid era, in part because these categories have become the basis for post-apartheid ‘redress’, in part because they retain cultural meaning in everyday life. South Africans continue to inhabit social worlds that are largely defined by race, and many express negative views of other racial groups. There has been little racial integration in residential areas, although schools provide an important opportunity for inter-racial interaction for middle-class children. Experimental and survey research provide little evidence of racism, however. Few people complain about racial discrimination, although many report everyday experiences that might be understood as discriminatory. Racial discrimination per se seems to be of minor importance in shaping opportunities in post-apartheid South Africa. Far more important are the disadvantages of class, exacerbated by neighbourhood effects: poor schooling, a lack of footholds in the labour market, a lack of financial capital. The relationship between race and class is now very much weaker than in the past. Overall, race remains very important in cultural and social terms, but no longer structures economic advantage and disadvantage.