Original news and analysis on international IP policy
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Cypto-guru Bruce Schneier, who has analysed thousands of documents provided by Edward Snowden on the secret surveillance programmes of the US National Security Agency, has called on the technical community to add encryption to the network and also come up with a new model for internet governance.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has announced a workshop in Ukraine next year aimed at fighting counterfeit technology products, representing a notable foray into intellectual property rights protection by the UN agency.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has scheduled an Extraordinary General Assembly from 10-12 December, in order to complete unfinished work from the annual WIPO General Assembly in September.
The United Kingdom has announced the implementation of new rules that extend the term of copyright for sound recordings and performers rights in such recordings from 50 to 70 years.
Countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement have undertaken an intensive series of negotiating meetings on specific topics over the coming month, ending with a meeting of chief negotiators and key experts in late November.
United States Trade Representative Michael Froman today said that bilateral and regional agreements offer a way to get higher standards in areas such as intellectual property rights protection "into the bloodstream" of the global trading system, when it is not possible to do it through multilateral agreements.
A new caucus of supporters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement under negotiation was launched yesterday in the US Congress.
The Motion Picture Association of America has provided a list to the US Trade Representative's office of the global websites and other sources the US film group says are the most copyright-infringing in the world.
Away from traditional free trade agreement negotiations with secret chapters on stricter intellectual property protection, perceptions are slowly evolving about the need to make IP systems work better. One of 100+ sessions at the 8th United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Bali, Indonesia last week featured “intellectual property exchanges” as marketplaces for knowledge. But IP policy did not take centre stage and neither did other access topics in Bali, which instead was overshadowed by the recent revelations of mass surveillance by US intelligence services.
The government of Antigua and Barbuda is said to be taking steps to set up a platform to allow the tiny Caribbean nation to monetise or otherwise take advantage of the suspension of US intellectual property rights, as it is permitted to do by a World Trade Organization dispute panel. The WTO panel had ruled that Antigua could make up its loss in IP rights for US measures blocking Antiguan online gambling in the US.
The European Parliament is showing some teeth again. Following the ongoing revelations of mass surveillance by US intelligence agencies, the Parliament plenary today passed a resolution calling on the EU Commission to temporarily suspend all data transfers according to the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) with the United States Treasury Department.
How sensitive is US trade? Perhaps as an indication of its approach to the press, the United States Trade Representative's office yesterday published its weekly "press week ahead" full of events that would be of interest to domestic and international press - and 100 percent closed to press.