Category IP Policies

EU Copyright Levies Extend To New Media As Harmonisation Lags

By Alicia Martin-Santos and Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch
European Union countries are imposing copyright levies on a whole new range of digital media, including digital music players, USB flash sticks, hard drives and, potentially, mobile phones and wireless connections, as efforts to harmonise Europe's heterogeneous copyright landscape continue to languish.

Copyright levies are imposed on blank material (such as blank CDs, DVDs or paper) or digital recording media (used to store digital content) in order to compensate authors for end-users' private copying. They first appeared in the 1960s and were charged on paper, photocopying equipment and tapes. New recording media, such as mp3 players (like iPods) or even mobile phones are being examined for potential levying.

US Courts Swinging Toward Higher Threshold For Patentability

By Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch
For years, the United States has appeared unusually generous towards patent applicants. The country has extended legal protection to many inventions, such as business methods, that typically are not patentable in Europe and other parts of the world.

Now, however, America appears to be back-pedalling. Two recent court rulings in the United States have significantly cut back on the types of inventions that can patented in the country. And these decisions may be just the beginning. More court-imposed restrictions may be coming soon, according to some experts.

The Idris Dilemma And The WIPO Development Agenda

By Sisule F. Musungu On Friday, 28th September 2007 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assembly finally adopted a development agenda for WIPO. The Assembly adopted a set of 45 proposals under six clusters, namely: technical assistance and capacity…

WIPO Panel: Rights Management Information At Core Of IP Protection

By Catherine Saez
The growing volume of audiovisual, musical or text-based content online offers opportunities and challenges to copyright owners, intermediaries such as search engines, and users, according to panellists at a recent World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) seminar. Among the challenges are the ownership, licensing and management of intellectual property.

Rights Management Information (RMI), as defined in the 1996 WIPO "Internet" treaties, identifies content protected by copyright or related rights, the rights owners for such content and the terms and conditions of use associated with it. RMI is playing an essential role in protecting copyrights in the network environment, according to panellists, most of whom were from an industry perspective.

Negotiator: Ethiopian Coffee Trademark Victory To Reap Millions

By Paul Garwood
Ethiopia's victory to trademark its major coffee brands could earn the east African country more than US$100 million annually and increase incomes for hundreds of thousands involved in the industry, a negotiator for the Ethiopian government said Tuesday.

Ron Layton, chief executive of the Light Years IP non-governmental organisation, told a luncheon in Geneva that agreements ground out between Ethiopia and companies like Starbucks will allow the poverty-stricken country to benefit more from the speciality coffees it produces. There are still some who doubt that Ethiopia got the best deal, however.