Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Infojustice.org writes: Last week, 23 civil society groups released the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms at the Internet Governance Forum, infojustice.org reports. The declaration is organized around twelve key principles, including Freedom of Expression and the Right to Information and Open Data.
The powerful World Intellectual Property Organization Program and Budget Committee in its recent meeting worked through a tough agenda of core decisions about the UN organisation’s functioning and future. The committee reached decisions on key issues related to strengthened oversight, the 2014-2015 programme, and financial issues, but couldn’t break through on issues like new WIPO field offices, streamlining committee meetings, accounting for development expenditures, or funding indigenous representatives to participate in WIPO negotiations.
The UN Human Rights Council today held a panel discussion in Geneva on the right to privacy in the digital age, featuring several experts. The panel was part of a larger effort by the Council to address the increasingly urgent issue.
The World Intellectual Property Organization this week released the decision in an internet domain name dispute in which the current incarnation of the once-wildly successful Napster music-sharing website successfully forced a website called napster.fm to shut down over intellectual property rights violations. Is Napster still cool?
The structure of new European Commissioners and top officials was announced today, showing changes to the handling on intellectual property issues and many others.
Leading US trade associations representing the high-technology industry yesterday issued a joint letter urging the Senate to pass reforms to US surveillance programmes. The effort comes after revelations about the US surveillance have harmed overseas markets for US technologies, they said.
By William Rava and Jason Howell, Perkins Coie Product packaging is an increasingly important marketing opportunity. Well-executed product packaging can support and strengthen your brand identity, differentiate your product on the shelf, and convey important, and often required, information to…
Newly arrived United States Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Pamela Hamamoto last week met with journalists for the first time by highlighting internet governance and Ebola, with a mention of intellectual property rights, among other issues.
At Intellectual Property Watch, www.ip-watch.org, we're celebrating our 10th anniversary by innovating to bring you the best independent coverage of international intellectual property policy possible. We are excited to announce our new website design, aimed at making our content easier to read, navigate and organize, with a simpler layout, clear text, more images, and new features like the From the Regions section.
World Intellectual Property Organization member governments are hard at work this week trying to improve auditing and oversight of the UN agency, coming after a successful year financially but a year of questions about governance and transparency. Proposed changes include a number of measures on conflicts of interest and investigations even at the highest levels of the organization.