Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today in a report accused Google of not doing enough to stop Internet users from accessing websites repeatedly accused of copyright infringement.
There will be a chapter on intellectual property protection in the draft proposals for a US-EU free trade agreement - the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said today at a meeting of the International Trade Committee of the European Union in Brussels. The TTIP will be a comprehensive agreement that will create the largest free trade zone in the world, according to De Gucht.
While country delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization are working to find consensus on a text to become a treaty for the benefit of blind and visually impaired people, industry and non-governmental organisations are pushing their agendas.
A new version of a text to become a treaty facilitating access to books and information for blind and visually impaired people was issued this morning at the World Intellectual Property Organization amidst concerns that a lot of ground still needs to be covered before the end of the meeting.
The European Commission announced today that it is inviting comments on a proposal for new competition rules for the assessment of technology transfer agreements. Under the rules, a licensor permits a licensee to exploit patents, know-how or software for the production of goods and services, it said.
Consensus remains elusive for World Intellectual Property Organization trying to prepare a text for final negotiations on an international instrument facilitating access to books and information to blind people, and some countries are growing concerned.
Twenty-four members of the European Union today signed the unified patent court agreement in
Brussels, including Italy.
Delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization working to clean the text of a potential treaty facilitating access to books for visually impaired people produced a new version this morning.
It has become routine for companies to outsource many business functions. Human resources, customer service, accounting, manufacturing of components - all have been outsourced. Now, however, a growing number of US businesses are outsourcing something new: patent licensing. And this outsourcing may hurt both the US economy and its patent system.
The biotechnology industry has growing concerns over decisions to be taken this year by the United States Supreme Court in two cases involving the patenting of human genes and the exhaustion of patent rights in the context of easily reproducible products. Several areas of biotechnology could be affected by unfavourable decisions, provoking legal uncertainty and discouraging innovation, industry representatives said in a recent telephone conference. In the meantime, civil society stands fast in opposition.
South-East Asia is host to one-third of the world’s 39 million blind people. Over 20 million live in India alone. This week’s special session of the World Intellectual Property Organization aims to clean up the text of an international treaty to facilitate access to books for the blind and visually impaired community. It is thus of prime importance for India, and some there worry that issues such as commercial availability could undermine the treaty’s effectiveness.
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture published a report providing financial and technical information on the first project portfolio of its Benefit-sharing Fund.