Intellectual Property and Intra-Community Trade

This Article will use recently decided intellectual property cases and other recent developments in European Community competition law to critically discuss the European Community\u27s traditional and strict pro-free trade approach in intellectual property cases. It will focus in particular on issues relating to the territorial nature of intellectual property rights. Part I of this Article examines the Court\u27s free trade approach in free movement cases involving patent rights. Part II explores patent rights in the context of technology Licensing Agreements, in particular in light of recent antitrust developments concerning vertical restraints. Part III discusses trademark issues. It first considers free movement rules and concludes with a brief discussion of trademark Licensing Agreements and antitrust law

Impedance spectroscopy of ions at liquid-liquid interfaces

The possibility to extract properties of an interface between two immiscible liquids, e.g., electrolyte solutions or polyelectrolyte multilayers, by means of impedance spectroscopy is investigated theoretically within a dynamic density functional theory which is equivalent to the Nernst-Planck-Poisson theory. A novel approach based on a two-step fitting procedure of an equivalent circuit to impedance spectra is proposed which allows to uniquely separate bulk and interfacial elements. Moreover, the proposed method avoids overfitting of the bulk properties of the two liquids in contact and underfitting of the interfacial properties, as they might occur for standard one-step procedures. The key idea is to determine the bulk elements of the equivalent circuit in a first step by fitting corresponding sub-circuits to the spectra of uniform electrolyte solutions, and afterwards fitting the full equivalent circuit with fixed bulk elements to the impedance spectrum containing the interface. This approach is exemplified for an equivalent circuit which leads to a physically intuitive qualitative behavior as well as to quantitively realistic values of the interfacial elements. The proposed method is robust such that it can be expected to be applicable to a wide class of systems with liquid-liquid interfaces

Electrolyte solutions at curved electrodes. I. Mesoscopic approach

Within the Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) approach electrolytes in contact with planar, spherical, and cylindrical electrodes are analyzed systematically. The dependences of their capacitance $C$ on the surface charge density $\sigma$ and the ionic strength $I$ are examined as function of the wall curvature. The surface charge density has a strong effect on the capacitance for small curvatures whereas for large curvatures the behavior becomes independent of $\sigma$. An expansion for small curvatures gives rise to capacitance coefficients which depend only on a single parameter, allowing for a convenient analysis. The universal behavior at large curvatures can be captured by an analytic expression.Comment: accepted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Physic

Companies in the European Community: Are the Conflict-of-Law Rules Ready for 1992?

This article describes the current situation in the emerging integrated system of the European Community, focusing on the potential conflict between Community rules on the freedom of establishment and national conflict-of-law rules relating to companies. In the first part, I shall outline the relevant provisions of EC law and the two conflict-of-law concepts presently exhibited in the national laws of the Member States. In the second part, I shall discuss three cases in which the European Court of Justice recently addressed this subject. In the third part, I shall analyze the impact of the Court\u27s opinions, and finally outline options for future legislative and other action

Consumer Contracts and European Community Law

The purpose of this Article is to complement the Symposium\u27s discussion of UCC-specific consumer protection issues with an overview of recent consumer protection developments in the European Community

Interaction between the Arabidopsis thaliana heat shock transcription factor HSF1 and the TATA binding protein TBP

AbstractThe heat shock factor (HSF1) is the central regulator of the heat stress (hs) response and is required for stimulating the transcription of the hs genes and consequently the expression of heat shock proteins. To promote the polymerase II-dependent transcription of the hs genes, HSF has to communicate with the basal transcription machinery. Here, we report that the Arabidopsis thaliana HSF1 interacts directly with TBP, the general TATA box binding transcription factor, as shown by affinity chromatography and electrophoretic mobility shift analyses in vitro. An in vivo interaction between AtHSF1 and AtTBP1 was suggested by results employing the yeast two-hybrid system

Vorkurse in Bayern. Zwischenbericht einer regionalen Befragung von Erzieherinnen und Grundschullehrkräften im Raum Regensburg

Der Vorkurs Deutsch in Bayern ist eine Sprachfördermaßnahme für Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund im Elemen- tarbereich. Er wird in Zusammenarbeit zwischen Kindergarten und Grundschule durchgeführt. Im Beitrag werden ausgewählte Ergebnisse einer Befragung von Lehrkräften und Erzieherinnen im Raum Regensburg vorgestellt. Aus der Auswertung gehen Empfehlungen für die Weiterentwicklung des Vorkurses hervor