Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Groups representing intellectual property rights holders in the United States are hailing the newly passed bilateral free trade agreements between the US and Colombia, Panama, and South Korea.
The Obama administration's recent signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement may face a US constitutional challenge as a member of the US Senate today called into question the administration's power to negotiate and enter into such a trade agreement without Congress's approval.
Resignations, retirements, appointments, and promotions are shaking up the status quo in the intellectual property world, opening the door of possibility for change in strategy and decision-making across industries and sectors.
Despite international frameworks and mechanisms to protect food security as a human right, a number of violations are committed in total impunity, according to the third edition of the "Right to Food and Nutrition Watch" issued today, this year with a focus on accountability issues.
The Medicines Patent Pool, which negotiates voluntary licences for lower pharmaceutical prices, today announced the signing of an agreement with generics producer Aurobindo Pharma Limited to manufacture antiretroviral medicines. The Patent Pool has recently come under criticism from AIDS activists concerned about its July licence agreement with drug company Gilead, and it remains to be seen if this action will address their concerns.
Europe's biggest hacker organisation, the German Chaos Computer Club (CCC), has analysed trojan horse software used by the German police to spy on suspects in several cases. In its 20-page analysis, the club revealed that the software sent to the hackers for analysis allowed police to not only listen into Skype calls, but also to control and manipulate infected machines from a command server using IP address 207.158.22.134, sitting on a server of a commercial hosting provider in Columbus, Ohio, in the United States.
An international private-sector network lobbying for the protection of geographical indications is set to establish a compilation of all GIs currently protected in the world in what could seem like a response to the repeated failure of governments to agree on the establishment of a GIs register at the World Trade Organization. The Organization for an International Geographical Indications Network (OriGIn), meeting for its fifth General Assembly, also voiced concerns about the lack of protection of GIs in cyberspace.
Social media has changed the old-fashioned rules of diplomacy, a senior US State Department advisor on social media told aspiring diplomats in Geneva today. The established rules of decorum and etiquette are giving way to a more interactive, less hierarchical system.
A European Court of Justice ruling this week outlawing exclusive broadcasting licences that prohibit the supply of decoder cards to TV viewers outside the EU countries for which the licences are granted will likely affect rights holders and broadcasters of content other than sports, observers said. The decision could also have implications for European Commission attempts to update rules for digital content distribution.
The head of the European Patent Office (EPO) and the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services today renewed their commitment to introduce a unitary EU patent, which they say would significantly ease workloads and reduce costs for patent applicants.
“Ex Africa semper aliquid novi”, which can be freely translated from Latin to mean “there is always something new coming out of Africa,” said Pliny, the ancient Roman writer and scholar. Presumably then, as is the case now, the concept of “new” included an expression of sarcasm and deprecation as in “absurd, nonsensical and ridiculous.” Well, Pliny has been proved right once again, writes Prof. Owen Dean.
The European Parliament’s Petitions Committee this week issued a call for a binding treaty allowing persons with print disabilities to make accessible copies of published works and to send them across borders.