Original news and analysis on international IP policy
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The US National Research Council has issued a report that looks at copyrighted works in the age of the internet, and finds a need for objective data and independent empirical research on copyright protection and the limits it can place on innovation and free speech. This comes as efforts are underway to review US copyright policy.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has launched an intellectual property portal to serve as a hub for ASEAN on IP-related issues.
The selection process for the next director general of the World Trade Organization is down to two candidates, both from Latin America. Intellectual Property Watch asked them to comment on why they would be the best leader for those interested in technology and intellectual property rights.
| LES (USA & Canada) 2013 Spring Meeting IP Matters In Every Deal May 14-16 | Seattle, WA |
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The International Trade Committee (INTA) of the European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution welcoming negotiations for a Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States (23 in favor, five against, one abstention). While most of the 198 amendments to the report of the rapporteur, the INTA Committee Chair Vital Moreira (Socialists and Democrats Group) were rejected by the majority, an amendment asking for the "exclusion of the cultural and audiovisual services, including those provided online" in the negotiation mandate was adopted.
The participation of indigenous peoples at the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization has become compromised as the funds allowing the organisation to invite indigenous peoples representatives is running dry. At the outset of this week’s WIPO committee seeking to produce an international instrument providing protection to traditional knowledge, an indigenous panel mapped out international agreements recognising their specific rights.
Experts in the field of three dimensional (3D) printing, invited by the World Intellectual Property Organization, today tried to demystify this technology, which has been much talked about but still not very well understood. Seen by some as a futuristic technology, 3D printing can achieve amazing results but also has technical limits and is not expected to yet lead to a manufacturing revolution.
Istanbul - The unsuspecting consumer must above all be protected against counterfeit products, speakers said today at meeting of private sector, intergovernmental and governmental representatives. But increasingly organised crime is dealing the products, and anti-counterfeiting forces need to be as innovative as possible to defeat it. Fortunately, the private sector is ready to step up to help cash-strapped governments, and it is taking the “respect for IP” message to … children.
At the close of this week’s negotiating session for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for blind and visually impaired persons, some governments, including upcoming host Morocco, expressed disappointment in the outcome of a three-day drafting session, as it left so much for the diplomatic conference. But most said they are optimistic that solutions can be found.
Members of the World Intellectual Property Organization have completed work on a draft treaty on copyright exceptions for the blind and visually impaired and agreed to move to a diplomatic conference in Morocco in June. But the text contains many areas displaying the difficulty in easing cross-border access to materials for blind people while protecting copyright holders’ interests.
The treaty currently being discussed at the World Intellectual Property Organization is of prime importance for blind and visually impaired people who are expecting that negotiators will engineer a treaty that is workable in the real world, they say. But too much focus on the right holders concerns might endanger the utility of such a treaty, according to the representative of a blind persons’ organisation.
A new text has been the subject of negotiation today by a committee seeking to finalise a draft treaty providing exceptions and limitations to copyrights so that blind and visually impaired people have facilitated access to special format books. Delegates are seeking to find language through agreed statements as a way out of prickly issues.