FIVE INDIAN COMMODITIES SET TO RECEIVE GI STATUS
Five commodities, namely, Nilgiri Tea, Assam Orthodox Tea, Monsoon Malabar Coffee, Tellicherry Pepper and Aleppey Green Cardamom are set to get a geographical indication (GI) status from the government.

INDIA PREPARING TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE DATA BASE
India has started developing database of Traditional Knowledge in five languages i.e English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese. This would enable the documentation of Traditional Knowledge in a structured manner. Indian government targets US with whom the government fought over basmati, turmeric and recently on yoga patents. The data base that contains information on traditional medicinal systems such as ayurveda, siddha, unani as well as yoga would be an important source of information for prior art in case of patents relating to Traditional Knowledge.

WIPRO FILED PATENT FOR E-ENABLER
Wipro Technologies, the Global IT service division of Wipro Ltd. (India) has filed a patent for its Service Oriented Architected (SOA) based solution e-Enabler. The solution provides SOA based platform to align applications to business processes, accelerate development, cuts deployment time and enable faster time to market. According to Wipro, the e-Enabler based implementation may result in upto 30% performance gain in applications and upto 15% reduction in developer efforts. The e-Enabler solution kit may be used to build SOA solution for business processes across any industry.

SONY ORDERED TO PAY $5M IN LOGO DISPUTE
A Federal Appeals Court ruled on 21st November 2007 that Sony music must pay the founder of a small record company ‘Cleaveland International Records’ $5 million for failing to put his company's logo on reissues of Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" album. Cleveland International Records is an independent record label formed in 1977 by Steve Popovich. The label had earlier won a lawsuit in 2005 when Sony Music produced copies of the Bat Out of Hell CD without the Cleveland International logo. In November 2007, a court ordered Sony to pay Cleveland $5million as Sony failed to add the logo for more than a year. Sony claimed the logo omission was a mistake that was eventually corrected. According to court documents, Sony claimed that Mr. Popovich had fabricated the logo agreement. In an original dispute over royalties from the album, Mr. Popovich and his former partners were awarded $6.7m (£3.2m) by Sony. Bat Out of Hell, which was originally released in 1977, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, according to court records.

20 DRUGS IN PIPELINE FOR POSSIBLE COMPULSORY LICENSES IN THAILAND
Thailand has in its pipeline about 20 items of various patented drugs that could be candidates for compulsory licenses. The items include drugs for treating hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidaemia. These drugs are in addition to the three drugs the government has already issued compulsory licenses.

CHANGES TO THE HAGUE SYSTEM FOR THE INTERNATIONAL REGISTRATION OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
At its recent session in Geneva, the Assembly of the Hague Union approved a number of changes to the administration of the Hague system. The changes will come into effect beginning 1st January 2008. The changes include a simplification of the fee structure and procedures.The WIPO has also announced that the Council of the European Union has deposited the instrument of accession of the European Community to the Geneva (1999) Act of the Hague Agreement. The 1999 Act will enter into force with respect to the European Community on 1st January 2008.