On August 2, the Mexican Congress passed substantial amendments to Mexico's 1991 Industrial Property Law, which became effective October 1st. Of interest is that the Congress approved Mexico's accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty, with the government finalizing membership with the World Intellectual Property Organization sometime this fall. It is expected that the PCT will enter into force in Mexico by the beginning of 1995. I assume Mexico will be joining with the same status as Spain - that is, subscribing to all things except the Chapter II provisions dealing with International Preliminary Examinations conducted by the PCT, which requires Spanish language capabilities that WIPO does not seem to possess yet. Given the hullabaloo over NAFTA, you would have figured that someone in the US government would have mentioned this, as Mexico's membership in the PCT simplifies the international patenting strategy of US companies, and Mexico's joining in a few months might prompt some companies to hold off their PCT applications until Mexico joins. Of the non-PCT countries, hopefully 1995 will see one or more of India (unlikely), South Africa (likely), Argentina (probably) and Singapore (maybe) joining the PCT. Given the many subscribers to my news service in Singapore, maybe Singapore will be next to join. Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service (for subscription info, send 'help' to patents@world.std.com) (for prior art search services info, send 'prior' to patents@world.std.com)