Two days were reserved by the European Patent Office to hear an appeal over the application for a stem cell patent. But only one was needed in the end.

Supreme Court Rulings and patent reform are making it harder to defend patents in the US – and biotechs are falling back on trade secrets to protect their IP.

Brussels is abuzz with speculation that Europe’s fragmented, costly and complex patent regime is about to reform – aided by advances in machine translation. But support is not unanimous.

Alternative Dispute Resolution can help keep litigation costs down and reach a speedy conclusion to a dispute.

On current growth rates China will overtake the US to become the world’s largest patent filing jurisdiction by 2012, according to market analysts Evalueserve.

The European Patent Office has launched a €16 million plan to try to ensure that the intellectual property rights newly enshrined in China are upheld.

The State Intellectual Property Office of China has launched a free online machine translation service for patent information searchers.

The UK government has announced the members of a board set up to provide it with strategic advice on intellectual property issues.

Innogenetics NV has settled its patent dispute with the US pharma giant Abbott over hepatitis C genotyping technology.

The European Society of Human Genetics wants to ban the patenting of genes and DNA sequences but allow patents on genetic tests.