Original news and analysis on international IP policy
A meeting on trademarks and industrial designs at the World Intellectual Property Organization was cut short by an electrical fire last week. Before the unexpected interruption, delegates advanced work on a possible treaty on industrial designs and discussed the role and responsibility of internet intermediaries in the field of trademarks.
An unusual sight met passers-by at the World Intellectual Property Organization around lunchtime today. The street was crowded with several fire trucks and yellow security tape kept people away from the entrance to the main building. A number of WIPO staff were outside waiting to know if they could go back to their work stations after a fire started in the WIPO basement around 11:30, according to a security source. According to another source on the site, the fire was rapidly under control but smoke had spread and the electricity was down.
On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is trying to dispel its image as a non-transparent organisation and is working on a new user-friendly website with public access to a number of formerly reserved documents. Meanwhile, for the first time farmers protested outside the UPOV building in Geneva, as they seek to preserve the ancient practice of saving seeds from their harvests to use the next year.
This week the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The Union is often criticised by civil society as being opaque, but plant breeders seem reasonably content with the latest version of the convention. However, some breeders that do not rely on seeds to reproduce their plants are seeking a clarification in the convention to prevent illegal use of their protected varieties.
Despite international frameworks and mechanisms to protect food security as a human right, a number of violations are committed in total impunity, according to the third edition of the "Right to Food and Nutrition Watch" issued today, this year with a focus on accountability issues.
An international private-sector network lobbying for the protection of geographical indications is set to establish a compilation of all GIs currently protected in the world in what could seem like a response to the repeated failure of governments to agree on the establishment of a GIs register at the World Trade Organization. The Organization for an International Geographical Indications Network (OriGIn), meeting for its fifth General Assembly, also voiced concerns about the lack of protection of GIs in cyberspace.
The annual summer shuffle of the mission staff in Geneva has been particularly active this year for those with responsibility for intellectual property rights, with several key diplomats packing their bags, and new ones arriving.
In a long-awaited decision, a United States federal appeals court has decided that US companies can patent breast cancer genes, reversing a previous ruling. The decision was not unanimous, with one of the three judges dissenting. But despite the attention the case has received, the ruling may have little impact on the biotechnology industry, according to analysts.
Delegates working on an international instrument to protect traditional knowledge and folklore against misappropriation today agreed this afternoon to ask the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly in September to extend the mandate of the committee working on those issues.
Delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization this week continued work on evolving draft texts of treaties to protect genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs), or folklore. But more work will be needed to complete them, according to participants.
The UN World Intellectual Property Organization yesterday invited a panel of international film producers and star Spanish actor Javier Bardem to sing the praise of an international treaty to help the audiovisual industry address the problem of unauthorised downloads of content that is a hallmark of the digital age.
As the mandate of the World Intellectual Property committee on the protection of genetic resources, traditional knowledge, and folklore is reaching its end, diplomats meeting this week seem to be coming to agreement on its extension. Meanwhile, a group of developing countries submitted proposals for each of the three legs of the committee, to be considered as delegates go through draft negotiating texts produced at the last session of the committee.