The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently posted a summary of the 18th Session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT) on its website, highlighting a number of areas discussed earlier this month. According to the WIPO summary (link below), this particular session was held from November 12 to 16, 2007, and was attended by 74 member states and 14 other intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations focusing "on key issues that aim to establish more clarity for the international protection of trademarks and industrial designs." Some of the specific topics discussed included new types of marks, with the Committee considering some of the approaches adopted by some of its member states for new types of marks including three-dimensional marks, color marks, sound marks, scent marks, movement marks, hologram marks, slogans and position marks. Trademark opposition procedures were also discussed, noting that delegates at the Session "worked on a set of key approaches regarding issues such as the grounds of opposition, third-party observations made in the course of opposition procedures, cooling off periods allowing for settlement negotiations, member states’ experience with introducing new opposition systems and the effect the abolition of office examination as to prior rights can have on the number of oppositions filed." Additional topics discussed include industrial designs (and an analysis of that type of registration among member countries), the protection of state emblems and names and abbreviations of non-governmental organizations (under Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property), and International Nonproprietary Names for Pharmaceutical Substances (INNs), which provide "a common generic designation of given pharmaceutical substances" in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) resolutions. Details on each topic discussed are available at the WIPO link below.