All year long, Intellectual Property Watch expends great energy and resources to bring hundreds of carefully written, detailed stories on policymaking – technical committee meetings, legislation, negotiations, legal cases, and latest reports and papers. But in what is perhaps stereotypical of readers everywhere, many of the best-read IP-Watch stories of 2014 were those few that involved elections and personnel issues and India, followed by a range of hot button issues such as high-priced medicines, copyright and knowledge access, patent valuation, or internet surveillance.
The eight most-read stories of the year were either about India or elections/staff at international organisations. The stories garnering the most traffic, according to Google Analytics, were stories about India, accounting for five of the top eight articles. This was followed closely by stories about elections and staff matters at the European Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization, together accounting for six of the top 14 articles.
India stories covered the copyright amendment, the Supreme Court judgment on a Novartis patent, patent policy, compulsory licensing, and a diplomat kicked out of the United States as tensions heightened between those two countries.
At the EPO, what caught attention were staff strikes and concerns about the EPO president. And at WIPO, the election of a director general – which happens only once every six years – drew significant attention, as did high-level accusations and a high-profile staff firing.
In addition to stories, among the top draws on the Intellectual Property Watch website were various categories for stories, such as Patent Policy, WIPO, Copyright Policy, Trademarks/Geographical Indications, and IP Law, and the About Us and Contact Us sections.
It is worth noting the number of visits to a story is cumulative during the year, so predictably many of the top stories were published earlier in the year. It is also worth noting that several of the top articles were contributed opinion pieces in the Inside Views column.
But the wide range of other top-read stories tell a good story themselves about the other key issues in international policymaking in 2014.
The ninth most-read was about European Parliament passage of a directive on collective rights management for pan-EU licences. Number 10 on the list was a contributed analysis about copyright and the famous selfie photographs taken by a monkey.
Others in the top 20 included: a patent value quotient showing average price paid for US patents; prospects for copyright exceptions for libraries and archives at WIPO; a UN General Assembly resolution on privacy and surveillance; an EU high-court ruling permitting libraries to digitise books without copyright owner consent; questions by a small economy about the efficacy of the World Trade Organization dispute settlement process; and disagreement over investor-state provisions in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations.
Additional stories registering significant readership were about: a United Kingdom private copying exception; the EU ratification of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity; concerns that erupted over a leaked pharmaceutical industry lobbying plan against South Africa’s draft IP policy; whether the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) would be the next international organisation in Geneva; and a debate over a possible tiered pricing model at the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
Still others were about: the World Health Organization adoption of a plan on access to medicines; the ruling on the right to be forgotten online in Europe; WIPO members signing up to the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled; the WHO director general declaring that no government should be intimidated by outside interested parties; and an analysis of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) 20 years later.
But of course this list leaves out the hundreds of solid stories on day-to-day policymaking that we also published and which we believe help move the global policymaking process along. Here’s hoping the news in international IP policymaking in 2015 will be more positive!
The Most-Read IP-Watch Stories of 2014:
- Inside Views: Development In Indian IP Law: The Copyright (Amendment) Act 2012
- European Patent Office Staff Calls Strike; President Battistelli Reacts
- Inside Views: The Judgment In Novartis v. India: What The Supreme Court Of India Said
- Battles Over Patents: Is India Changing The Rules Of The Game?
- WIPO Staff Council Head Fired On Eve Of Annual Assembly; Chair Asked To Share Reports On Gurry
- EPO Internal Strife Spills Over Into European Parliament, Human Rights Court
- India’s First Compulsory Licence Upheld, But Legal Fights Likely To Continue
- Departed Indian Diplomat Confronted US Business Over India’s IP Policy
- EU Parliament Passes Directive On Collective Rights Management, Pan-EU Licences
- Inside Views: Analysis: Monkey In The Middle Of Selfie Copyright Dispute
- Interviews With The Candidates For WIPO Director General
- Report Finds Average US Patent Cost US$ 374,000 In 2012
- Gurry Wins Committee Vote For Next Director General Of WIPO
- EPO Supervisory Body To Face Fears Over Patent Quality, Judicial Independence
- Hopes Dampened For Copyright Exceptions For Libraries/Archives At WIPO
- UN General Assembly Adopts Resolution On Privacy And Surveillance
- WIPO Director General Election: How It Works
- Libraries May Be Permitted To Digitise Books Without Copyright Owner’s Consent, EU High Court Rules
- Antigua Questions Efficacy Of WTO Dispute System Over IP-Related Case
- TTIP: EU Commissioner Points Finger At US Secrecy, Investor-State Provisions
- UK Adopts Private Copying Exception As Some Rightholders Mull Legal Action
- EU’s Nagoya Protocol Ratification: How It Works
- Concerns Erupt Over Leaked Pharma Lobbying Plan Against IP Policy In South Africa
- Will ICANN Be The Next International Organisation In Geneva?
- Inauspicious Start To Gurry’s Second Term As IP Policymaking Hits Wall At WIPO
- Global Fund And Tiered Medicines Pricing Under Debate
- WHO: Fight Ebola Now, Solve Patent Issues Later
- World Health Assembly Approves Plan To Strengthen Access To Essential Medicines
- WIPO Director General Election: Down To Three Candidates
- The Right To Be Forgotten: Balancing Conflicting Rights
- Could The WIPO General Assembly Reject Francis Gurry’s Nomination?
- Four More WIPO Members Sign Marrakesh Treaty For Visually Impaired
- WHO Chief: No Government Should Be Intimidated For Doing “Right Thing” In Public Health
- Inside Views: South Africa Promotion And Protection Of Investment Bill 2013 – A Review
- 20 Years Of TRIPS: Max Planck Launches Declaration On Patent Protection
Image Credits: National Geographic
[…] and uncertainty! And may perhaps account for why even in an international platform such as IPWatch, the most widely read stories are Indian IP stories. And on that note, let me wish all our readers […]