Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The European Patent Office today announced the appointment of three new vice-presidents, related to patent granting, legal and international affairs, and corporate services. The appointees come from Germany, the United Kingdom, and Austria.
The digital revolution has transformed the way trade is taking place. The share of goods like CDs, books and newspaper is dropping in terms of global trade volume, pushed down by digital goods. In that context, intellectual property rights are also increasingly traded, in particular IP licences, in what a World Trade Organization official defined as a major phenomenon. While the United States is the leader in the digital market, China took pole position in video games in 2017.
Concerned by the ever-increasing influx of counterfeit and pirated goods into Europe, European Union member states on 9 October backed a new customs action plan for 2018-2022. The first step will be a roadmap for implementation from the European Commission (EC) by next spring.
Developing country members are asking to have more representation in the World Intellectual Property Organization governing bodies, and the issue is taking on increased importance as one of the committees will play a key role in the election of the next WIPO director general in 2020.
The so-called broadcasting treaty being negotiated at the World Intellectual Property Organization is supported by broadcasters’ organisations in the hope that it will stanch signal piracy. Some voices however, warn about creating a right that might be captured by large internet corporations such as Facebook, Google and Netflix, which can be a stone’s throw away from acquiring radio or television channels to qualify for the protection of the potential treaty. They also challenge the duration and scope of the protection. A seminar gathering stakeholders last week looked at implications of the treaty.
World Intellectual Property Organisation delegates have been negotiating a treaty aimed at protecting broadcasting organisations against signal piracy without success for the last two decades but has started to show signs of movement at the UN agency. A seminar held by a civil society group last week explored the potential implications of such a treaty on access to culture. At the event, a well-known copyright specialist argued that the current draft treaty being discussed, intended to update a 1961 treaty, does not take into consideration changes that took place since then, and in particular the transformation of broadcasting in the digital age.
Negotiations on possible exceptions to copyright for specific actors such as libraries, archives, universities and research institutions at the World Intellectual Property Organization have been stalling for years. Last week, a group of civil society organisations published a proposed draft treaty text for copyright exceptions for educational and research activities. Now they are seeking support from WIPO members to shoulder the text.
The US Supreme Court often decides momentous cases. And then there’s Fourth Estate Pub. Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com. Many experts view this case as little more than a tempest in a teapot. However, the suit will resolve a legal dispute that has simmered for over 30 years, and it highlights some important copyright issues that are unique to the US.
Joseph Henry Vogel writes: Bretton Woods is the name of a place and also of a system. Bretton Woods-the-place boasts the Mount Washington Hotel and majestic views of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Bretton Woods-the-system is the set of financial rules drafted during an international conference held at the hotel from 1 to 22 July 1944 [1]. The system created monetary order and allowed postwar recovery. For economists, Bretton Woods signifies the system. Its success illustrates how economic thinking can penetrate the political sphere and make lasting change. John Maynard Keynes, the Darwin of economics, led the British delegation.
The World Intellectual Property Organization is partnering with a range of other organisations and the government of South Africa to hold an international conference on "respect for intellectual property." The conference will take place from 23-25 October in Sandton, South Africa. Intellectual Property Watch conducted an interview with Louise Van Greunen, Director, Building Respect for IP Division, about the upcoming conference.
There is a lot of energy and good dynamism, and some worries, too, about the immensity of the task ahead in the United Nations High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, Jovan Kurbalija, executive director of Panel's Secretariat, said after the first face-to-face meeting last week and subsequent virtual town hall on 1 October. According to the mandate, the panel shall in less than a year present recommendations on ways and means for cooperation on digital policies and digital risks.
For ecommerce, just who should be making the rules was raised by a number of speakers at a session of this week’s 2018 World Trade Organization Public Forum entitled, “Ecommerce 2030: Enabling an inclusive future for e-commerce.”