Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Bruce Gain for Intellectual Property Watch
Five years and over 30,000 lawsuits later, both sides in the music industry's legal battle against illegal file-sharing in the United States claim they are prevailing.
By Bruce Gain for Intellectual Property Watch The decision by Virgin recording company to send warning letters to alleged music pirates earlier this month appears out of sync with the approach internet service providers in the United Kingdom and elsewhere…
By Bruce Gain for Intellectual Property Watch
The United Kingdom government's much-anticipated release last month of its "Creative Britain" report offered few details about the direction anti-piracy policy could take in the European Union country. But government officials, Internet service providers, media groups and other interested parties are expected to hash out a final draft of a working agreement on enforcement in the coming months, according to sources.
By Bruce Gain for Intellectual Property Watch
European carmakers are turning to European courts to urge enforcement of their intellectual property rights against Chinese firms, and they have a good chance of prevailing, legal experts say.
At issue are car models that European manufacturers Daimler, BMW, and Fiat say are made-in-China replicas of their models.
By Bruce Gain for Intellectual Property Watch
Legal experts and consumer rights groups are questioning the feasibility of measures described in an anti-piracy pact that French media groups, government officials, and Internet service providers (ISPs) announced on 23 November.
ISPs also dispute the veracity of media reports that have since claimed that access providers will begin to actively monitor and block peer-to-peer file exchanges in France.
The anti-piracy agreement describes a number of possible measures that could prevent illegal distribution of copyright-protected digital media in France.
By Bruce Gain for Intellectual Property Watch
The European Commission's recent approval of a €120-million state aid package granted to a German research project called Theseus for the development of "Web 3.0" drew a lot of media attention. However, the grant's sum is but a fraction of the R&D budgets of the world's leading consumer Internet technology firms.
According to the project's spokesman, Thomas Huber, the project's aim is nothing less than "fundamentally transforming the existing Internet." A reinvention of the Internet and the intellectual property rights associated with such a feat would require billion-dollar annual research and development budgets, according to Rob Enderle, president and founder of the California-based Enderle Group analyst firm.
By Bruce Gain for Intellectual Property Watch
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and other associations representing record labels are facing significant challenges in their efforts to enforce European Union copyright laws against unauthorised downloads of music files over peer-to-peer networks.
It remains to be seen whether the EU Copyright Directive and other EU mandates, as well as thousands of lawsuits filed against downloaders, will be enough to contain file sharing in the EU.
Different degrees of enforcement and the reluctance of some criminal courts to convict so-called "music pirates" in the different EU states can make it difficult for recording industry groups to successfully seek court remedies against individuals who illegally download copyrighted files.