Year 2013

At IGF, Glimpses Of Future IP Governance Overshadowed By Mass Surveillance

Away from traditional free trade agreement negotiations with secret chapters on stricter intellectual property protection, perceptions are slowly evolving about the need to make IP systems work better. One of 100+ sessions at the 8th United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Bali, Indonesia last week featured “intellectual property exchanges” as marketplaces for knowledge. But IP policy did not take centre stage and neither did other access topics in Bali, which instead was overshadowed by the recent revelations of mass surveillance by US intelligence services.

Antigua Creating Platform To Monetise Suspended US IP Rights From WTO Case

The government of Antigua and Barbuda is said to be taking steps to set up a platform to allow the tiny Caribbean nation to monetise or otherwise take advantage of the suspension of US intellectual property rights, as it is permitted to do by a World Trade Organization dispute panel. The WTO panel had ruled that Antigua could make up its loss in IP rights for US measures blocking Antiguan online gambling in the US.

A New Model For Internet Governance Is In The Air

Brazilian Minister of Communications Paolo Bernado Silva, during the opening session of this week's 8th Internet Governance Forum in Bali, Indonesia, announced that the goal of the Internet Governance Summit in Brazil next spring will be to find a new model for internet governance.

Sign Of The Times: USTR Press Events 100 Percent Closed To Press

How sensitive is US trade? Perhaps as an indication of its approach to the press, the United States Trade Representative's office yesterday published its weekly "press week ahead" full of events that would be of interest to domestic and international press - and 100 percent closed to press.

UPOV Holds Weeklong Meetings As Civil Society Publishes Restricted Documents

This week the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is holding the annual meeting of its governing body, and preparatory meetings leading up to it. A seminar also is being held on essentially derived varieties. Meanwhile, civil society is asking that all the meeting documents be held public while demonstrating that restricted documents can be obtained through national freedom of information rights.

European Commission Market-Tests Samsung Antitrust Commitments

The European Commission wants feedback from interested parties on a proposal by Samsung Electronics to resolve an antitrust investigation. The case relates to Samsung's efforts to enforce standard essential patents (SEPs) it owns for mobile communications technology. SEPs are patents that protect technologies essential for the implementation of an industry standard developed by a standard-setting organisation.