Horticultural Breeders Call For Stronger Protection Of Innovations
The protection of intellectual property for plant innovation was at the heart of a recent conference on patents and modern plant breeders rights in horticultural breeding.
Intellectual Property Watch
Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Year 2012
Greens Call For ‘Social Contract For Digital Age’; Lessig Calls US Hopeless On Copyright Reform
BERLIN--The United States is hopeless when it comes to a copyright reform for the internet, US Law Professor Lawrence Lessig told the German Green Party's congress on internet politics on Saturday. Europe, Lessig said, could take the lead with regard to that reform, which is needed but blocked in the US by vested interests.
Peace, Love, and Private Practice: Film Industry Lawyer Ted Shapiro To Depart MPA
Ted Shapiro, a long-time copyright industry advocate in the European legal trenches for the Motion Picture Association, will leave at year's end for a private law firm in Brussels.
UN: Governments To Double Biodiversity Funding, Push Access/Benefit-Sharing
At last week's high-level meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) governments agreed to double financial flows toward biodiversity by 2015, the CBD has announced. They also came up with strategy to move forward on access and benefit-sharing of biodiversity.
WIPO Members Inch Toward Visually Impaired Treaty
After three days of mostly informal discussions and a set of succeeding draft texts of what could become a treaty for visually impaired persons, World Intellectual Property Organization members tonight closed discussions with yet another version of the text showing agreement in some areas and work still to be done.
Sources: European Telecom Operators’ Proposals Run Aground At WCIT
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch European Telecommunications and Network Operators (ETNO) proposals for accounting changes between internet providers – namely a “sender-party-pays regime” and provisions to foster end-to-end quality of service management on the net – did not…
South Korea Lends IP Training Support To China
In a move that goes beyond territorial disputes and past atrocities, the Republic of Korea this week hosted a training session for Chinese civil servants on protection of intellectual property rights.
US Court Rules On Fair Use For Blind Users, Digitisation, Amid Treaty Talks
Coinciding with the marathon negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization for a potential treaty for the visually-impaired persons, a United States court handed down a ruling this month that goes in favour of copyright exceptions in the digitisation of books for the purposes of preservation, text search and access for the blind.
Subscriber Update: New Document On Visually Impaired Treaty At WIPO
A new working document on an international instrument on copyright limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons being negotiated at the World Intellectual Property Organization has been issued this morning. The document is below.
New USPTO Post-Grant Review A Small Step For Patent Harmonisation
On 16 September, the United States made its patent system more like everyone else’s. The country began implementing a new patent office procedure for challenging the validity of recently issued patents. This was, however, only a modest step towards harmonisation because the US version of post-grant patent review has little in common with the corresponding processes available in other countries, according to experts.
Pro-Music Re-Launched After Nine Years
Pro-Music, the international alliance of various stakeholders in the music industry promoting the use of legal services on the internet, has moved to give its website a facelift, nine years after it was launched back in 2003.
New Draft WIPO Visually Impaired Treaty Shows Progress, But “Clock Is Ticking”
As a new revised working document on a potential treaty for visually impaired persons was issued this morning at the World Intellectual Property Organization, delegates retreated again into informal consultations for the day to try to advance the text further.