Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The World Intellectual Property Organization program on intellectual property and environmental technology is looking for consultants to catalyze green tech transactions in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a set of negotiating objectives for renegotiating the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that include its hopes for elevating intellectual property in the trade deal. Included in the list: force Canada and Mexico to ratify international treaties, accept US law on IP protection and create conditions for "strong" IP enforcement especially online, and ensure ample protection for products with generic names. Perhaps oddly, there is only one mention of trade, which includes respect for a 2001 text at the World Trade Organization on IP and public health.
Trade ministers negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement have released the list of provisions they have suspended, including a range of articles related to intellectual property rights, such as patentable subject matter, test data protection, biologics, copyright terms of protection, and technological protection measures.
It’s hard to escape the watchful eye of the internet – it will follow you through life. But if something put on the internet about you is wrong, misrepresents you or even endangers you, should you have a right to…
The United States Copyright Office has issued a reminder to all online service providers and agents that they must renew their registration with the office by end of year in order to claim liability limitations from copyright infringing content.
The UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) today released its annual report on the global information society, this year providing detailed analysis of the transformational "revolution" underway involving the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. It also ranked countries by their level of ICT development. Hint: the Western Hemisphere did not fare so well.
WASHINGTON – Today, over seventy international copyright law experts called for NAFTA and other trade negotiators to support a set of balanced copyright principles. The experts urge trade negotiators to support policies like fair use, safe harbor provisions, and other exceptions and limitations that permit and encourage access to knowledge, flourishing creativity, and innovation. Signatories include preeminent intellectual property professors and experts from law schools, think tanks, and public interest organizations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as well as Argentina, Australia, China, Ireland, and Switzerland.
Trade ministers negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without the United States have dropped many problematic provisions related to intellectual property and health, Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) reported today. Also removed from the agreement appears to be the investor-state dispute settlement provisions, according to a source.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today issued changes to some patent fees, including increases in certain areas, including the cost of using the inter partes review process. Following feedback from users, the office went with some proposed increases, while keeping others at existing levels despite proposals to increase them, it said.
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria today selected Peter Sands, a former bank CEO who is involved in health projects at the World Bank and elsewhere, as its next executive director.
Members of a US congressional subcommittee on intellectual property held a hearing last week that appeared aimed at finding ways to stop companies from “renting” the sovereignty of Native American tribes in order to avoid a process that can lead to the invalidation of patents. Elected officials called a deal between Allergan pharmaceutical company and a northeastern tribe a “sham” and a “mockery”, and signalled the start of the legislative procedure to prevent such deals.
Days after withdrawing from consideration to be the next director of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the UK's Peter Sands has asked to be reinstated. The actions come as the Fund's Board gathers this week to choose among the final candidates for head of the international health funding organisation based in Geneva.