An Eventful Week For IP Policymaking In The United States
The United States’ search for ways to spark its job growth has led to a focus on intellectual property rights, and this week several significant developments boiled over.
Intellectual Property Watch
Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Category Features
Burdened With Brackets, Biodiversity ABS Protocol Needs Political Will To Survive
Substantive progress eluded the negotiators of a draft protocol on biodiversity access and benefit sharing last week in Montreal, according to participating sources. The third attempt at finding consensus on key aspects of the text was unsuccessful and negotiations will carry on at the major United Nations meeting on biodiversity next month in Japan.
Echoes Of Global Patent Wars At WIPO Annual General Assembly
Echoes of the struggles and advances in patent policy around the world were heard this week in the annual meeting of the member governments of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization. At stake is no less than the future of societies everywhere.
The Realities Of Traditional Knowledge And Patents in India
India’s laws on traditional knowledge are yielding interesting positive and negative results, writes Mohan Dewan.
Special Report: Global Internet Governance Work At A Turning Point
Five years after the tale began in Athens, the United Nations Internet Governance Forum returned to Europe last week to ask itself what has been achieved. The answer was encouraging enough to prompt a range of internet stakeholders to suggest continuation of the group, this time with a greater focus on concrete outcomes.
Coherence Needed To Avoid Multilateral Legal Swamp, WTO Told
The multilateral system with its different agencies dealing with specific areas is sometimes seen as incoherent in global negotiations and norm-setting as there are overlaps in competency, definition and scope, according to speakers at a side event to the recent World Trade Organization Public Forum.
Spanish Collecting Society Targets Group Proposing Alternative Royalty System
A Spanish group lobbying for alternative ways to protect and promote creative production has been asked to cease activity or face a lawsuit for damages, unfair competition and infringement by the Spanish collecting society SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores), according to the group. The collecting society also charged that the lobbying group is undermining its reputation.
Online Social Media Strategy: Use Them Or Be Used By Them
A frontline debate among many industry intellectual property lawyers in the United States is how to handle the explosion in use of online social networking media tools like Facebook, Twitter or FourSquare.
US Companies, Officials Discuss Policies To Boost IP Value, Cut Costs
Private-sector experts and key government officials in the United States came together this week to discuss strategies for improving rules and procedures on intellectual property, and look for ways to maximise the value of company IP assets while cutting costs.
Economists Report Empirical Evidence Of TRIPS Impact On Developing Countries
The World Trade Organization Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement has sparked decades of international debate over whether exporting stronger intellectual property norms to developing countries is beneficial or harmful.
African Traditional Knowledge And Folklore Given IP Protection Despite Warning Of TK Commodification
Some African nations signed a protocol on the protection of traditional knowledge and folklore at the beginning of August gaining the praise of the World Intellectual Property Organization. However, a United Nations report launched in January warned against the application of western legal and economic principles to collectively owned knowledge in traditional communities.
Treaty Negotiators Turn To “ACTA Lite” In Hopes Of Closure
Everyone you ask this week about the Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement (ACTA) tells you that they’re just about to work their way through the new draft version to understand the implications of changes made during the recent negotiation round in Washington, DC. Massive changes to the text have been revealed by yet another leak of the draft treaty text being negotiated by 10 countries and the EU 27 member states.