Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Obama administration's recent signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement may face a US constitutional challenge as a member of the US Senate today called into question the administration's power to negotiate and enter into such a trade agreement without Congress's approval.
Resignations, retirements, appointments, and promotions are shaking up the status quo in the intellectual property world, opening the door of possibility for change in strategy and decision-making across industries and sectors.
The Medicines Patent Pool, which negotiates voluntary licences for lower pharmaceutical prices, today announced the signing of an agreement with generics producer Aurobindo Pharma Limited to manufacture antiretroviral medicines. The Patent Pool has recently come under criticism from AIDS activists concerned about its July licence agreement with drug company Gilead, and it remains to be seen if this action will address their concerns.
Social media has changed the old-fashioned rules of diplomacy, a senior US State Department advisor on social media told aspiring diplomats in Geneva today. The established rules of decorum and etiquette are giving way to a more interactive, less hierarchical system.
The head of the European Patent Office (EPO) and the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services today renewed their commitment to introduce a unitary EU patent, which they say would significantly ease workloads and reduce costs for patent applicants.
The European Parliament’s Petitions Committee this week issued a call for a binding treaty allowing persons with print disabilities to make accessible copies of published works and to send them across borders.
The UN agreement struck last year to bolster access and benefit-sharing related to biodiversity has been gaining signatures rapidly and may on its way to an early approval, according to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity secretariat. However, while countries are signing, not one has yet had a chance to ratify it.
As some developed countries prepared to ink a secret plurilateral trade agreement against rampant global piracy and counterfeiting in recent days, leading emerging economies and non-governmental groups warned the World Intellectual Property Organization that such outside agreements need to respect broader societal impacts of IP rights enforcement or risk abuses of international rules on trade and development.
White & Case law firm is looking to hire two lawyers for its World Trade Organization (WTO) practice in Geneva, to work on trade areas including intellectual property rights.
World Intellectual Property Organization members yesterday agreed to attempt completion in 2012 of long-stalled negotiations on a treaty giving clearer protection to the rights of actors and others performing in audiovisual productions. The breakthrough is being seen as good for the multilateral system and, if successfully concluded, for actors and others in developing countries.
The annual World Intellectual Property Organization meeting of member states kicked off yesterday with hope among participants that the next year could bring a return to positive revenues, a settling of internal dissension, and some of the first treaties at the UN agency in nearly 20 years.
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is organising a conference entitled, “The Changing Domain Name Landscape and New gTLDs” on 30 September in Paris.