Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The chair of the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee has issued a new consolidated text on definitions, what should be protected, and the rights to be granted to broadcasters. The text comes in the lead-up to the next meeting of the committee.
The World Intellectual Property Organization committee on enforcement concluded yesterday with an agreement on the future work of the committee. The adoption of this programme was heavily discussed during the week, reflecting the different approaches on enforcement of intellectual property rights among countries.
Authors will receive more for their inventions in Russia, as the local government has changed a scheme on the distribution of authors’ royalties. In addition, the government is setting up a new body to draw together the two dozen agencies that deal with aspects of the intellectual property system.
Alongside this week's meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on enforcement, an event featured a former South African Supreme Court judge presenting his views on IP enforcement. There is a need to go for the “big fish,” he said, and to bring balance in sanctions and enforcement procedures. He also described courts as finding that exceptions to copyright are a public right.
[Software Freedom Law Center, Link (CC-BY-SA)] The first official public release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement (known universally as the TPP) on November 5, 2015 generated much heated speculation. The ideal of “open agreements, openly arrived at” remains regrettably unattainable in international affairs. “Fast track” trade negotiating authority in the US means that parties excluded from the negotiating process have a short time in which to mobilize for or against the treaty as a whole in light of their specific concerns. The premium on speed of response to a very lengthy and complex legal document—and the presence of intense public attention—guarantees that hasty judgment and occasional self-promotion will always outrun professional analysis; this is one of the inherent defects of secret legislation.
Annemarie Bridy writes: Section J of the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s IP chapter, on ISP safe harbors, looks a lot like Section 512 of the DMCA [US Digital Millennium Copyright Act], but the two frameworks differ in some important respects that could negatively impact the global environment for user speech online. This post offers a comparison of Section J and Section 512 with a focus on the rights of users and the status of user expression in the TPP’s intermediary safe harbor provisions.
The enforcement of intellectual property rights is a challenge in particular because of the lack of awareness of the consequences of infringement, said several speakers at the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on enforcement this week.
The 26th United States-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) meeting was held from 21-23 November, and covered a wide range of intellectual property-related areas, including standards and IP, trade secrets, geographical indications, sports broadcasting, enhanced enforcement against media boxes and unauthorised content providers, and online enforcement.
The World Intellectual Property Organization Deputy Director General responsible for copyright, Anne Leer, has decided to resign her post, citing personal reasons.
Today, the World Trade Organisation intellectual property committee agreed on a recommendation to extend until 2017 a moratorium shielding intellectual property from a mechanism through which one WTO member can go after another member even in the absence of WTO rules infringement.
Draft rules updating Nigeria's copyright law regime are expected to be submitted to Parliament in 2016, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) Regulatory Department Head Michael Akpan has said. While the provisions have already been thoroughly vetted by stakeholders during consultations, several are likely to be challenged, he told Intellectual Property Watch. [Updated]
The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling on 29 October related to the definition of a “database,” more especially of the “independent material” constituting a database.