Original news and analysis on international IP policy
This week, a key World Intellectual Property Organization committee is debating policies related to the protection of traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions (folklore) and genetic resources with an eye to helping local communities, often indigenous, get the full market value…
By Molly Torsen A more and more robust literature on traditional cultural expressions is being written, discussed and even filtered into legislation. Most academic thinking on the topic agrees that Western intellectual property (IP) laws do not offer adequate or…
By Pedro Paranaguá. The traditional business model of the phonographic industry is being left behind by the competitiveness of new technologies. The technological world is evolving, but some businesses are struggling as they are not adapting themselves to the ever-increasing…
By Rodrigo Cerda In the intellectual environment of universities, we have long discussed the tragic loss of life that occurs daily because sick people around the world cannot afford the drugs that could cure them. Indeed, we have reason to…
At the recent UN Internet Governance Forum in Athens, a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) representative said there is a “new emphasis on limitations and exceptions to copyright and user rights in areas such as freedom of expression and access…
Niels Louwaars writes: Biotech companies, particularly those based in the United States consider that their patents on plant biotech inventions do not allow the use of the plants containing the invention as a source for further breeding, even if the…
Perhaps the biggest lobbying effort in the history of the European Union came in the 2005 fight to change the European patent system to include computer-related inventions, which ended in failure. Now, industry lobbyists are looking for new ways to…
Gilberto Gil, an internationally acclaimed musician and songwriter since the 1960s, is Brazil’s Minister of Culture. Educated in his native state of Bahia, Gil has lived and travelled extensively abroad and speaks four languages fluently. He reflects the Brazilian government’s…
By Naana E. K. Amonoo – LL.B, LL.M (I.P). It is forbidden in the intellectual property world to condone anything to do with copying without the owner’s permission. It is of course understood that the hard work of any IP…
By Molly Torsen Over the past several decades, scholarship on the nexus between cultural heritage and intellectual property law has alternately garnered keen international attention or remained stagnant. Those jurisdictions that have a greater interest in protecting their heritage –…
Concern is high over the impact on the global public’s access to knowledge of increasing copyright restrictions on that knowledge. Scientists, academics, publishers and others at a September seminar in Alexandria, Egypt discussed how to ensure proper balance between rights…
In the aftermath of the late July collapse of the Doha Development Round negotiations at the World Trade Organization, some are looking for reasons and next steps. Much focus has been placed on the agriculture stalemate, but intellectual property issues…