Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch BRUSSELS – The ‘fragmented’ nature of Europe’s patent application system is harming small firms, a Brussels event has been told amid new efforts to harmonise it. Ever since the early 1970s, the European…
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch BRUSSELS – The European Commission has recommended that a forum involving creative artists and the consumer industry should be established to determine the future of private copying levies. Twenty-one of the European Union’s…
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch BRUSSELS – The European Parliament looks set to take Brussels’ top trade official to task over his latest attempt to persuade Thailand that it should revise its policy on pharmaceutical patents. Shortly after…
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch BRUSSELS – Developing countries this week clashed with senior officials in the World Customs Organisation over an initiative designed to ensure that intellectual property rights are upheld at border posts, according to participants.…
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch
BRUSSELS - Changes to intellectual property rules may be needed to facilitate the use of technology aimed at addressing climate change, the head of the European Patent Office (EPO) has suggested.
Next month, the 34-country EPO will host what it claims is the first major international conference to examine the patenting issues raised by global warming.
Alison Brimelow, the EPO's president, said the European Patent Forum in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana will give an opportunity to exchange ideas on whether the international system for regulating intellectual property should be modified.
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch BRUSSELS – A formal complaint has been lodged with the European Parliament over how its information technology systems rely almost exclusively on software manufactured by Microsoft. Advocates of open standard software, which is…
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch BRUSSELS – The World Customs Organisation is recommending far-reaching new rules on intellectual property rights that some say may extend beyond the organisation’s mandate. Staff at the WCO’s Brussels headquarters are preparing what…
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch
With America's political elite fixated on the race for the White House, the likelihood that the world's most powerful country will make much progress during 2008 in free trade negotiations with other nations appears slim.
Across the Atlantic, however, European Union officials have indicated they will be vigorous in insisting that high standards for protecting intellectual property are upheld as universally as possible. Numerous other bilateral talks are ongoing around the world as well. And attention may be drawn from the longstanding trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization.
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch BRUSSELS – The European Commission has accused Microsoft of invoking intellectual property rights “in the eleventh hour” to protect its dominant position in the global computer market. Per Hellstrom, a senior official in…
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch BRUSSELS – The European Union has demanded that Taiwan change its intellectual property law within two months following a probe into how the East Asian island overruled patents on recordable CDs (CD-Rs). Philips,…
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch The European Union has taken steps to ratify a 2005 decision by the World Trade Organization designed to ensure that intellectual property does not limit access to medicines in developing countries. Peter Mandelson,…
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch BRUSSELS – Intellectual property rules should be reshaped to ensure that they do not hinder developing countries from gaining access to technology considered vital for addressing climate change, the European Parliament has declared.…