Original news and analysis on international IP policy
ABU DHABI, UAE -- Government representatives from several countries in the Amazonas region clashed with a team of lawyers and communication officers of the global retailer Amazon over the top-level domain .amazon during the Annual Meeting of the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names Numbers (ICANN) in Abu Dhabi today.
Suzanne Kavanagh writes: Over the course of the year, three issues repeatedly reared their heads as barriers to the successful implementation of Open Access: the burden of expected author OA expertise; the underutilization of metadata in the publication lifecycle, and the challenges posed to authors and institutions by one-off solutions. As the tenth Open Access Week draws to a close, with its focus on the concrete benefits of making scholarly research openly available, where have we gotten to in solving these problems and realizing the potential of OA?
The imbroglio which might cause a major impediment to the World Trade Organization's functioning is thickening as the United States continues to block the selection process to fill vacancies in the WTO Appellate Body, according to sources.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week blocked the first request by Qatar for a World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel to rule on measures by UAE that Qatar alleges interfere with trade in goods and services and with protection of Qatar's intellectual property rights. Neighbouring countries say they have taken actions out of concern that Qatar is providing financial support for terrorist groups.
World Trade Organization committee members this week were asked to recommend to the upcoming ministerial conference whether to lift or indefinitely prolong a moratorium shielding intellectual property from complaints between members not involving a breach of a WTO agreement. Short of a consensus, the intellectual property committee will have to reconvene next month to try to find agreement. Separately, a two-year extension was granted to countries not yet having ratified the public health amendment to WTO IP rules.
Among all the high-profile issues on the stage and the countless side meetings and cultural celebrations happening at the annual World Intellectual Property Organization annual Assemblies, there were some interesting facts and figures presented about the UN agency itself.
The importance of intellectual property protection for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the challenges they might encounter to ensure that protection was the focus of an event organised this week by a group of developed and middle-income countries at the World Trade Organization. According to the group, the event aimed at drawing connections between IP policies that are under discussion in the WTO IP committee.
Members of a 2008 World Trade Organization coalition are trying to rekindle a negotiation to provide the same level of protection granted to wines and spirits to other geographical indications, and to grant intellectual property protection to genetic resources and traditional knowledge. The discussion might not make it to the December WTO ministerial, but the group hopes to open a “fresh window” for discussion.
A technology association-backed report released this week shows strong growth in revenues for the music industry over the past 5 to 10 years, driven by digital music. The data counters the current European copyright reform concern over a "value gap" for the music industry, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) said.
It’s safe to say most delegates at the annual World Intellectual Property Organization General Assemblies this month gave no thought to the next election for the director general of the UN agency. It’s not surprising, as it is still years away and was not on the agenda this year. But it was surprising to hear a few delegates in the hallways utter the first very early whispers about what the next election might look like. So Intellectual Property Watch talked to delegates and looked at the possible timeline for the next election for the top post at WIPO.
Today a range of civil society organisations sent an open letter to European Union policymakers calling for the removal of a provision they say would violate citizens' rights by forcing monitoring and filtering of copyrighted materials.
After an intense 10 days of negotiations, World Intellectual Property Organization delegates this week managed to close all items of the organisation's annual General Assemblies, with major decisions taken, such as the approval of the 2018/2019 budget, and a new mandate and work programme for the committee on the protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. However the inability to decide at the ambassador level which countries would host new WIPO field offices, and on the convening of a high-level negotiation to conclude a treaty on industrial designs, led to some teeth grinding.