Original news and analysis on international IP policy
In a significant development for ongoing copyright negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Blind Union has distanced itself from initiatives it sees as distractions from a primary goal at the international level: To get agreement on a treaty promoting better access to reading material for visually impaired readers.
A key Geneva-based public-private initiative to increase global vaccination has named a new CEO.
The newly created Medicines Patent Pool promises to increase access to HIV/AIDS medications in developing markets. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the pool operates a scheme in which pharmaceutical patent holders voluntarily licence their drugs to generic manufacturers who then produce more affordable versions for patients in poorer countries
A large (440-page) new report on media piracy in emerging economies is stirring significant debate in internet copyright and open access circles, as it purports to turn rights owner assertions and the basis for developed country IP policy on their heads.
US President Obama today nominated current US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be ambassador to China. US intellectual property rights holders see it as a positive contribution to what they see as a fight against massive piracy and counterfeiting from China.
The annual report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, to the sixteenth session of the UN Human Rights Council yesterday is unequivocal. There must be a global agricultural shift toward more productive, environmentally friendly, sustainable modes of production, using natural resources to remediate world hunger, away from industrialised agriculture. In short, the world needs a shift to agroecology.
Free Press, a US non-profit working to reform media, announced that its president is stepping down after almost a decade, to be replaced by the current managing director in mid-April.
A number of law firms and a key trademark industry group have made changes in recent weeks aimed at boosting their intellectual property practices.
The Canadian Parliament is on the verge of amending the nation’s patent regime to make it easier for generic drug companies to provide low-cost HIV medications for developing countries.
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has announced the appointment of a new executive director.
The new international agreement on access and benefit-sharing of genetic resources has many IP implications, according to panellists at an event last week. And at least one United Nations agency is launching an effort to help countries with those IP implications.
BRUSSELS - In an arm-wrestling exercise, governments and the Board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) last week tried to reach common ground on intellectual property rights protection and governments' ability to intervene with applications for new top-level domains that they see as “sensitive” or “vulnerable” like .nazi, .gay or .bank.