Original news and analysis on international IP policy
LISBON - The role of information and communications technology (ICTs) in boosting global economic recovery plus the greening and convergence of ICTs were made top issues of the 4th World Telecom Policy Forum (WTPF) in Lisbon held on 22-24 April.
While rightsholders hailed a “landmark” recent high-profile verdict against the operators of Swedish online file-sharing site The Pirate Bay (TPB), legal and digital rights analysts say it was no surprise. While the law of secondary liability for copyright infringement is by no means settled everywhere, TPB’s attitude toward intellectual property protections means the same decision could have happened in other countries as well, they said.
As the need to protect the global environment grows, questions are being raised about how intellectual property might help incentivise the development of the right kinds of technology and its transfer to places that need it most.
Protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights is emerging as the dominant priority in international trade policy for the European Union and United States, based on communications from trade officials and others. Stimulating innovation also has a significant role.
When it comes to intellectual property rights enforcement, developed country rights owners and their governments continue to puzzle over how to get the rest of the world’s economies to drink from the trough now that they have brought them there. One approach that may regain interest is combining the all-out war on piracy with efforts to build greater trust in the enforcement system.
Bilateral free trade agreements can have a profound effect on national intellectual property legislation, and a Thursday panel offered countries a deeper understanding of the stronger enforcement provisions typically found in such agreements.
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND – In an age when private sector interests are arguably returning to dominance in intellectual property policy debates, two key global policy bodies are being pushed to show their relevance.
Evidence-based policymaking is essential to combat climate change, and ensure the transfer of climate-change-related technology, said a members of a panel held at the World Intellectual Property Organization. But it can be hard to determine where to find that evidence.
Developing countries would do well to demand a place at the table as negotiations for an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement undermine the multilateral approach to intellectual property policy making, argues Michael Geist.
Connoisseurs of French-press coffee based in the United States will still be able to choose between two competing distributors for their favourite brewing device following a recent US court decision over trademark rights on the distinctive coffeemakers.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which coordinates the global domain name system, is in the process of reforming its core bodies, and consumer representatives and others see a possibility to inject more balance into the international organisation’s stakeholder groups long dominated by a range of private sector representatives.
An interview with Marshall Phelps, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for intellectual property policy and strategy and a mastermind behind IBM’s and Microsoft’s massive IP valuations, and David Kline, journalist, author and intellectual property consultant, on their new book, "Burning The Ships," which looks inside Microsoft's IP strategy.