Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Despite what was described as good momentum by World Intellectual Property Organization delegates trying to find ways to protect broadcasting organisations against piracy and providing copyright exceptions and limitations for the benefit of libraries, archives, education and research, no recommendation to the upcoming annual WIPO General Assembly could be agreed last week.
World Intellectual Property Organization delegates this week have underlined the positive mood which governed the discussions on a potential treaty protecting broadcasting organisations. The topic has been on the agenda of WIPO’s committee on copyright for some 17 years. This week some convergence emerged notably on what the treaty should protect.
Yesterday, the chair of the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on copyright issued a non-official paper to delegates in an effort to break what appeared at the beginning of the session as status quo as delegations camped on their previous positions.
While the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on copyright was discussing the protection of broadcasting organisations this week, performers lobbied for fair remuneration in the digital age. Visual artists, for their part, campaigned member states for a new treaty to…
A World Intellectual Property Organization patent landscaping report launched this week shows that although a large number of patents have been granted on technologies aimed to help visually and hearing impaired persons, most of them have not been commercialised yet.
WARSAW - Poland’s Constitutional Court has released a ruling in which it states that the country’s regulation obliging any entity violating other entity’s author’s rights to pay the threefold amount of due payment is excessive, and, as a result, should be amended. The latest ruling will oblige the Polish Parliament to modify the authors’ rights bill in line with the Constitutional Court decision, and decrease the amount of the due compensation.
The World Intellectual Property Organization committee on copyright opened this week with an information panel that underlined that broadcasters in developing countries face more or less the same issues than their counterparts in developed countries. Piracy remains a shared issue. This week, the committee is expected to breach the gap on differences on a potential treaty to protect broadcasting organisations.
In the quest to find solutions to protect traditional knowledge and genetic resources from misappropriation, some countries have resorted to private databases to be used by patent examiners. Indigenous peoples are wary of the process primarily because they are not sure their knowledge will remain safe in those databases. Speakers at a World Intellectual Property Organization this week discussed the pros and cons of such defensive protection.
Experts at last week’s meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in Buenos Aires reached a milestone with a final proposal from the ICANN working group for the transition of internet control away from the United States. But global governance without oversight remains difficult, as the ongoing review of the introduction of new generic top-level domains aptly illustrates.
The World Intellectual Property Organization committee on copyright is meeting next week with an agenda of discussions on a potential international instrument to protect broadcasting organisations’ copyrights, and at the same time exceptions and limitations to copyright for the benefit of libraries, archives, education, research, and persons with disabilities other than sight impairment.
The issue of genetic resources or traditional knowledge that are shared among different countries was discussed at a World Intellectual Property Organization seminar this week. Panellists presented national and regional efforts to protect such resources.
Much will depend on Australian federal judges after a website blocking bill targeting copyright violations was passed by both houses of the Australian legislature this week.