Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch It was a victory for the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), but it may be short-lived. On 7 December, a US federal court threw out a lawsuit that challenged Margaret Peterlin’s appointment…
By Catherine Saez
Months after health products manufacturer Johnson & Johnson filed a civil complaint against the American Red Cross and its commercial licensees to stop using the symbol of a red cross, the public interest it generated seems to have all but subsided. However, questions about the possible consequences of this lawsuit at the international level remain unanswered.
After roughly 100 years of sharing the symbol, the two entities are now fighting over it. The lawsuit filed by US-based Johnson & Johnson (J&J) against the American Red Cross (ARC) and four of its licensing partners on 8 August focused mainly on preventing the ARC and its licensing partners from using the red cross design on commercial products such as first aid kits to prevent unfair competition. The American Red Cross has licensed sale of its kits in large-scale retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and major drug stores.
By Sinfah Tunsarawuth for Intellectual Property Watch BANGKOK – Thailand’s lawmakers on Tuesday finalised a draft bill to amend its copyrights law in an effort to regulate the collecting of royalties in domestic music industry, which bill proponents say has…
By Catherine Saez How best to protect traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources against misappropriation and misuse was the main theme of a recent community consultation in the form of a roundtable organised by the World Intellectual Property…
By William New Members of the World Trade Organization on Friday continued a longstanding debate over the creation of a register for geographical indications (GIs), products whose names derive from places. Debate centred on a recent compromise proposal from European…
By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch China and the United States last week held high-level discussions on a host of topics including intellectual property rights, reaching agreements to cooperate on IP rights protection, stopping counterfeit medicines and devices,…
By Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch Two years after India’s implementation of international trade rules on intellectual property rights, a lawyers group is rekindling a decade-old push to organise India’s patent applications into an electronic database. IP law blog…
By William New
Members of the World Health Organization worked for days recently under the steady gaze of the WHO director general in an attempt to develop a new framework for the global influenza-sharing system designed as a safeguard against a pandemic.
Por Monika Ermert para Intellectual Property Watch El Consejo de Europa está deliberando sobre la posibilidad de negociar un tratado para proteger a los organismos de radiodifusión contra la piratería de señales y, de ese modo, abordar la cuestión tratada…
Par Dugie Standeford pour Intellectual Property Watch Un projet de loi présenté la semaine dernière par un groupe bipartisan de représentants américains prévoit l’application de sanctions plus importantes en matière civile et pénale en cas de violation des droits d’auteur…
Por Dugie Standeford para Intellectual Property Watch Un grupo bipartidista de legisladores estadounidenses solicita sanciones civiles y penales más severas para la violación de los derechos de autor y marcas registradas mediante un nuevo proyecto de ley presentado la semana…
Monika Ermert, pour Intellectual Property Watch Le Conseil de l’Europe examine actuellement la possibilité d’élaborer une convention destinée à protéger les signaux de radiodiffusion contre le piratage. L’organisation prendrait alors le relai des négociations de l’Organisation mondiale de la propriété…