Original news and analysis on international IP policy
It’s hard to escape the watchful eye of the internet – it will follow you through life. But if something put on the internet about you is wrong, misrepresents you or even endangers you, should you have a right to…
The United States Copyright Office has issued a reminder to all online service providers and agents that they must renew their registration with the office by end of year in order to claim liability limitations from copyright infringing content.
The UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) today released its annual report on the global information society, this year providing detailed analysis of the transformational "revolution" underway involving the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. It also ranked countries by their level of ICT development. Hint: the Western Hemisphere did not fare so well.
WASHINGTON – Today, over seventy international copyright law experts called for NAFTA and other trade negotiators to support a set of balanced copyright principles. The experts urge trade negotiators to support policies like fair use, safe harbor provisions, and other exceptions and limitations that permit and encourage access to knowledge, flourishing creativity, and innovation. Signatories include preeminent intellectual property professors and experts from law schools, think tanks, and public interest organizations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as well as Argentina, Australia, China, Ireland, and Switzerland.
Nobody among members of the World Intellectual Property Organization disputes the importance of the public services provided by libraries and archives. However, positions are different when it comes to providing exceptions to copyright to those entities so they can continue to dispense their services, in particular in the digital age. An updated study presented today in a WIPO committee shows that most countries have exceptions relating to libraries, but termed in very different ways, and are hesitant on how to deal with digital technologies.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has grasped the nettle after years of discussion on the issue of limitations and exceptions to copyright, and provided draft action plans, one each for libraries, archives, museums, educational research institutions, and persons with other disabilities than sight impairment. The plans, being discussed in this week's committee meeting, include brainstorming sessions, studies, and regional seminars, and conferences to advance understanding and issues related to copyright for those particular actors.
American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL) Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property has announced the hosting of Fifth Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest, from 27-29 September 2018. And it is now actively seeking sponsors, partners and expressions of interest.
A weeklong event next week has been co-organised and sponsored by a number of Geneva actors, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and the University of Geneva, as well as lesser known groups and projects, to celebrate the international week of entrepreneurship.
The practice of building custom software is alive and well despite the emergence of tons of ready to use offline and online business apps. Businesses build custom software for various reasons. Some are unsatisfied by solutions available on the market, others need very specific features or overall functionality, security and privacy concerns are another major driver of tailored software development. The process of building custom software involves five basic stages, if you stick to traditional software development workflow, or an indefinite number of iterations under agile development method. Both approaches, however, include various scenarios in which intellectual property rights are involved, writes Jorge Sagastume.
PIJIP’s Copyright User Rights Database tracks changes to copyright user rights (aka limitations and exceptions) over time in a sample of 21 countries of different development levels. The data assesses the degree to which other countries have adopted exceptions that are as open as the US fair use right – i.e. open to a use of any kind of work, by any kind of user and for any purpose. The instrument and results are available at infojustice.org/survey.
Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises represent the bulk of the global economic fabric, but they face many impediments to joining the global marketplace. An informal group of countries is bringing the conversation into the World Trade Organization, to see how it can help small companies integrate international trade. They submitted a draft decision for the upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference in December. A workshop this week looked at challenges and possible remedies at the national and international level.
Electronic commerce is flourishing, but countries are not benefitting equally from this windfall. An event held this week at the World Trade Organization looked at the role of the WTO in the establishment of global rules for e-commerce, while WTO member states themselves disagree on the urgency to establish a new work programme, just weeks before the next WTO ministerial.