From a recent article in Nihon Keizai, a Japanese newspaper: MITI has started deliberating measures to strengthen protection of intellectual property rights in new sectors such as multimedia and genetic engineering. The ministry wants to clarify relationships between different rights, since hardware and software claims are likely to become intertwined in the multimedia sector, where computer and communication technologies are converging. Moreover, protective strategies will likely be needed soon, as gene research efforts approach the commercialization phase. The U.S. leads in both the multimedia and gene sectors, so MITI hopes that implementing intellectual property right protection measures will also serve to prevent Japan-U.S. friction. 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 ) (for WWW patent searching, try http://sunsite.unc.edu/patents/intropat.html )