Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch LINZ, AUSTRIA – Copyright discussion has become a simplistic binary debate of “pirates that steal everything” versus “rightsholders that want to protect everything,” warned Japanese entrepreneur, blogger and CEO of the Creative Commons…
By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch
The presidential election in the United States is getting down to the wire, with Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama being officially chosen as their parties' nominees.
The intellectual property community is taking particular note of what positions the candidates are taking on patent reform, copyright enforcement, internet neutrality, and a host of other issues. Both campaigns have a plethora of expertise in the form of law professors, patent lawyers, and others advising them, either informally or formally.
Por Steven Seidenberg para Intellectual Property Watch El fallo no tiene valor de precedente. No obstante, la reciente decisión del caso Jacobsen v. Katzer (en inglés) tendrá un gran impacto en las leyes estadounidenses sobre derechos de autor, según expertos…
Steven Seidenberg pour Intellectual Property Watch La décision ne fera pas jurisprudence. Néanmoins, selon certains spécialistes de la propriété intellectuelle, le récent jugement de l’affaire Jacobsen contre Katzer aura des conséquences majeures sur le droit d’auteur aux États-Unis. L’affaire Jacobsen…
By Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch
The ruling has no precedential value. Nevertheless, the recent decision in Jacobsen v. Katzer will have a major impact on US copyright law, according to IP experts.
Jacobsen held that open source licences can be enforced under US copyright law. "It is first time that a US court of appeals has directly addressed issues about the enforceability of open source licences," said Jim Thatcher, Of Counsel in the Seattle office of Woodcock Washburn. "There isn't anywhere else for [US] courts to turn for guidance on this issue, so they will turn to this case and its logic for the enforceability of open source licensing terms."
"[T]rust me, this is huge," Lawrence Lessig, a copyright expert at Stanford Law School, wrote in his online blog.
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch The Bush administration has no intention of giving up United States oversight role of the management of the central root zone of the internet domain name system (DNS), the essential database storing information…
By Kaitlin Mara Intellectual property is the last real comparative advantage that rich countries have, said a panellist at a recent International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) joint event. This…
By Wagdy Sawahel for Intellectual Property Watch CAIRO – In a bid to promote awareness of intellectual property rights issues and provide information about IP in the Arab world, the first dedicated IP Arab satellite channel has been launched. Based…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch A groundbreaking agreement between the UK government, major internet service providers (ISPs) and the music and film industries could signal that efforts to engage ISPs in fighting digital copyright piracy are gaining momentum.…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Harmonisation of copyright regulation in recent years has overly “focussed on securing rightsholders’ ability to benefit from new modes of exploitation and business models” and has primarily served “the interests of copyright exporting…