Original news and analysis on international IP policy
US President Obama's proposal for the fiscal year 2013 budget, released today, raises or maintains spending in a number of key areas for technology and innovation, according to an industry analysis.
Changes continue at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as the director of communications announced today that he is stepping down immediately after nearly a decade.
Microsoft Corporation has issued a statement that it will not seek injunctions on its standard essential patents in keeping with its promises to international standards organisations. It further said it will make those essential patents available for licence without condition.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has embarked on a programme of allowing new generic top-level domains on the internet (like .com), an initiative that has worried trademark holders and international organisations. Now the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center is offering services for trademark holders who wish to challenge proposals for new gTLDs later this year.
A new paper from the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) offers ideas on addressing misappropriation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge at the World Intellectual Property Organization.
For years, some developing countries have insisted that developed countries – which own the vast majority of intellectual property rights – take a singular focus when it comes to offering technical assistance on IP rights: the protection of “northern” property. In recent years, negotiations in venues like the World Intellectual Property Organization have sought to ensure that such assistance also highlight the creation of local IP rights as well as the availability of flexibilities developing countries have under international rules for IP.
The major US copyright industries today issued a list they said “documents rampant online and physical piracy of copyrighted works and severe market access barriers.” Public interest groups will be watching closely to see if the list submitted to the US government is incorporated wholesale into a package of government assertions of inadequate protection of US intellectual property rights by trading partners.
The European Union and India today will engage in a high-level meeting in New Delhi with an agenda that includes energy and climate, research and development, and information and communications technologies. But as they enter the meeting, an international health agency and a powerful health advocacy group have issued statements of concern that intellectual property provisions in a bilateral free trade agreement under negotiation will stifle critical generic medicines production in India, putting thousands of poor patients at risk worldwide.
A new publication by a well-known open access advocate proposes a business model for sharing content online that would recognise sharing as a right.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office today announced a project it said will award prizes to patent owners for using their patented technology for humanitarian purposes worldwide.
Some 70 groups from across the social and political spectrum have sent a letter to the US Senate and House of Representatives calling for them to step back from any anti-piracy legislation until more consideration can be given of the effect on the internet.
A key World Health Organization advisory group has invited stakeholders to consultations this month on the contribution of the private sector and others to global pandemic flu preparedness.