Original news and analysis on international IP policy
After a week of work on the three current subjects of the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee, member states mostly made progress on a potential treaty to protect broadcasting organisations, while exceptions and limitations to copyright for libraries, archives, education and research remain in the stage of determining broad concepts.
The World Intellectual Property Organization will hold a conference in January on open innovation and the future of knowledge, featuring some surprising speakers.
Five top trademark offices, which call themselves the TM5, met earlier this month in Seoul, South Korea, and agreed on seminars, reports and other activities intended to improve their coordination and help fight bad practices.
When it comes to software-related inventions, US patent law is a confused mess. So it was no surprise that, in early December, the United States Supreme Court announced it would weigh in on the matter. The court granted certiorari in Alice Corporation v. CLS Bank in order to decide when software-related inventions are patentable subject matter. But given the complicated technology and the high court’s confusing precedents in this area, many experts fear that the ruling in Alice will bring little clarity to this area of the law.
A new private-sector report shows that after a downturn, patents on a range of technologies for water are back on the rise as companies are busy innovating around a basic human need and resource.
The first annual United States report on Russia's implementation of World Trade Organization commitments since it joined the WTO last year shows that Russia has taken many steps to comply with its commitments on intellectual property rights. But the US report found some areas where Russia is lagging.
The United States and China today announced agreements on a series of measures to strengthen intellectual property rights protection in China.
The new National Academies report on patents and standards is a landmark effort to shed light on the tensions between patents and standards in information and communications technology. Brian Kahin critiques the report and examines underlying problems that the report sidesteps.
WASHINGTON, DC - The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) programme of strategically placed intellectual property lawyers in key locations abroad continues to grow. And the annual report of a lineup of these IP attachés this week at the US Chamber of Commerce showed they are having some success.
As World Intellectual Property Organization member states launched into discussions on exceptions and limitations to copyright for the benefit of libraries and archives this week, non-governmental organisations were given the opportunity to present their views on the issue. They delivered vibrant, sometimes contradictory, statements on the opportunity for a treaty to preserve exceptions in the international copyright system.
The European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs today received an oral summary of the draft recommendations on mass surveillance, after hearing the testimony of former Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald.
World Intellectual Property Organization member countries worked this week to find a common understanding of the functions of a potential new treaty protecting broadcasting organisations. Over two days, they tackled definitions, beneficiaries and scope of the new instrument with some success. One of the issues related to whether or not the treaty should cover transmission over the internet, and new proposals arose during the week.