Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The arrest of the president of Google's operations in Brazil is the latest in a string of court decisions to test the neutrality stance of the search giant. Since its beginnings, Google has seen itself as an internet middleman, insisting that it should not be held legally liable for any defamatory or infringing content posted by its users.
Trade associations representing creators, performers and producers of literary works in Europe have reiterated in a joint declaration issued today that manufacturers of copying devices should continue paying for copyright levies amid efforts to abolish the controversial remuneration model.
In a bold and unprecedented move, the ruling coalition of Germany has come to the rescue of the beleaguered news publishing industry by pushing for the enactment of a related right to copyright that would ask commercial aggregators to pay publishers for their use of headlines and extracts of news articles.
The United States and China will hold early next week what is becoming the largest bilateral programme between their courts in the area of intellectual property adjudication. Set to gather more than a thousand participants, the discussions will largely revolve around patent litigation, according to a top US judge.
The tiny island state of Singapore has begun to ramp up its capacity for patent search and examination ahead of a bold move to adopt a new patent system, one of the proposed major amendments to its Patents Act. The Southeast Asian economic high-flyer is pressing for changes to its laws to position itself as an Asian hub for intellectual property.
The Republic of Korea has opened its fourth satellite copyright office, in the Philippines, in a bid to protect its copyrighted works amid the popularity of Korean entertainment in this Southeast Asian nation.
The All-Party Parliamentary Intellectual Property Group in the United Kingdom is undertaking an inquiry into the government's role in intellectual property (IP) promotion and protection, less than a year after the publication of an independent and comprehensive review on the UK's IP system.
With the commercial internet now in its early twenties, stakeholders are finding themselves at a crossroads, unsure whether to allow business as usual or embrace a more regulated regime. Intellectual property, with its penchant for protection, is one of those areas where the tug-of-war is most evident, and seemingly caught in the middle are internet intermediaries.
Opposing opinions on the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) clashed anew ahead of next week's meetings of the European Parliament where the EU body may make critical decisions on the fate of the deal.
Public Knowledge, a Washington, DC-based public interest group, has launched an initiative that capitalises on active participation from American online and social media users to lobby for the adoption of some reforms in internet governance aimed at protecting knowledge access.