ICANN Accepts Some Government Advice On New TLDs
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) this week accepted another set of advice from its Government Advisory Committee (GAC) with regard to new top-level domain applications.
Intellectual Property Watch
Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Monika Ermert
EU Court Backs Secrecy, Privileged Industry Access In Trade Talks
Secrecy in trade negotiations and privileged access for business and trade associations does not violate EU law, according to a judgment handed in by the Court of the European Union in Luxembourg today.
EU Anti-Terror Data Retention Directive Meeting Resistance In EU Courts
The European Court of Justice in a decision dated 30 May ordered Sweden to pay a lump sum of €3 million euros for its delay in transposing the controversial 2006 EU data retention directive into national law in time.
Latest EU Mandate For EU-US FTA Shows Priorities
Audiovisual content should be out of scope for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), but protection of European geographical indications is covered and intellectual property issues in general “explored,” European Union governments wrote in their draft negotiation mandate for the Commission, dated 21 May.
EU Parliament Backs Start Of Transatlantic FTA Negotiations
The European Parliament today voted in favour of a resolution welcoming the start of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). With 460 votes in favour, 105 against – mainly the Green Party Group and the Left - and 28 abstentions, the resolution passed after a heated debate Wednesday night. The majority allowed for the flexibility asked for by EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht in the debate but nevertheless requested to “exclude cultural and audiovisual services, including those provided online.”
Parliament Members Call For Removal Of Conditions In WIPO Treaty For Blind
Members of all political party groups in the European Parliament in a debate in Strasbourg yesterday asked the European Commission to scrap several conditions demanded by the European Union and other Western countries in the World Intellectual Property Organization negotiations for the draft treaty on copyright exceptions for the blind and visually impaired.
Special Report: Big Trading Blocs Moving At Breakneck Pace To Raise Free Trade Standards
The pace to negotiate bilateral or plurilateral free trade agreements has been accelerating rapidly over the last month as the big trading blocs seem eager to position themselves in the race for market access and standards.
China, Japan and Korea in March hurried to open their first official round of negotiations (CJK), just in time to edge ahead of Japan's joining the negotiations of an enlarged Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and also ahead of the official start of a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) announced by the European Union and the United States earlier this year. Meanwhile, a concerned Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) rushed to counter these ventures with their own competitive bid by starting detailed talks on a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in Brunei Daressalam.
World Telecom Policy Forum Agrees On Six Opinions
While controversies over the role of governments in internet governance could not be avoided at the World Telecom Policy Forum this week, six prepared opinions were all passed with only minor changes. But a Brazilian proposal to "operationalize the role of governments in the multistakeholder framework of internet governance," discussed at some length during the concluding day of the forum, did not find consensus.
IPR Lists For Trans-Atlantic Trade Deal Still Growing; Risk Of Locking In Old IPR Regimes?
Locking in Europe and the United States to “old” intellectual property regimes is the one “killer argument” against including an IP chapter in the upcoming Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), according to Bernd Hugenholtz, director of the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Brussels. Hugenholtz spoke at a workshop on “What Role for Intellectual Property Rights in the TTIP?,” organised by Marietje Schaake, member of the European Parliament for the Liberal Group. Questions also were raised during the meeting about the lack of transparency of free trade negotiations.
World Telecom Policy Forum: Healing The Split Or Fueling A Telecom Policy “Cold War”?
Governments, sector members of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and a number of civil society groups are gathering in Geneva for three days this week to talk internet politics at the 5th World Telecom Policy Forum (WTPF). The non-binding forum is the first opportunity to take the temperature of the international telecom politics community since the failed World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) last December. At the same time, it is seen by many as the stepping stone to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference and therefore a platform to position oneself with regard to future internet-related public policy and the future role of states in the digital world.
European Parliament Trade Committee Backs Cultural Exclusion From EU-US FTA
The International Trade Committee (INTA) of the European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution welcoming negotiations for a Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States (23 in favor, five against, one abstention). While most of the 198 amendments to the report of the rapporteur, the INTA Committee Chair Vital Moreira (Socialists and Democrats Group) were rejected by the majority, an amendment asking for the "exclusion of the cultural and audiovisual services, including those provided online" in the negotiation mandate was adopted.
German Parliament Sends Message: Stop Granting Software Patents
The German Parliament has passed a joint motion against the growing trend of patent offices to grant patents on software programs. The resolution on “Secure Competition and Innovation in the software development,” obliges the German government to take steps to ensure that software is protected by copyright only and no additional patent protection is granted.