Welcome to the April edition of Simpson Grierson's xtech ezine.

Comic books and their characters are a feature of the childhood memories of many of us and many of the characters are still as popular as they were when we were much younger. Recently some comic superheroes were at the centre of a lawsuit against software developers. Our first article this month covers a dispute between Marvel Comics and both the developer and publisher of an online role playing game. What does this mean for other game developers and hosts? Can they be held accountable for the copyright infringements of their users?

Senior Associate (and Patent Attorney) Mark Hargreaves, along with Partner Don Holborow, of our national Information and Communications Technology Law Group provide a look at the benefits and risks patents pose and the commercial advantages that a sound patent strategy can have for your business.

Consultants provide a valuable service to Biotech companies, as they do with most knowledge driven organisations. Our third article looks at issues to be considered when engaging consultancy services. Much of this article is also applicable to other technology based companies.

The last article this month provides an update on the now finalised Reserve Bank Outsourcing Policy and what it means to those providing outsourced services in this area.

As always - please let us know if there's a topic you'd like to see covered in the ezine and feel free to forward this ezine to friends or colleagues. If you're not on the distribution list - why not sign up?

Regards,
Simpson Grierson's x-tech group