Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen With the United Nations negotiations on harmonising international patent law in deadlock, a group of developed countries has agreed on a basis for its internal discussion, according to a draft meeting report. The group’s plan…
The candidates for next week's election to succeed UN International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi are not following his platform of drawing international pressure to change the US-centric Internet domain name system.
By William New ATHENS – Whether intellectual property rights protection is inhibiting the free flow of information was hotly debated at the Internet Governance Forum on 31 October. “Just about every aspect of the free flow of information is now…
By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen Following the rejection of a patent application for one of its medicines, Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has taken the “unprecedented action” of challenging India’s patent law in a high court, arguing that it is unconstitutional…
By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen The European Parliament yesterday agreed by a large majority to the European Commission’s plan of going forward with talks on patent reform in Europe, but with a number of amendments to the current plan aimed…
Por William New El 3 de octubre, las asambleas anuales de la Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (OMPI) concluyeron con un raro espíritu de cooperación y algunos recordatorios forzados sobre la difícil labor normativa y administrativa que deberá realizarse…
By John T. Aquino for Intellectual Property Watch The past few weeks have witnessed the evolution of the world of user-upload sites. MySpace.com and YouTube.com were once youthful rebels – their founders were young, their audience was predominantly under 30.…
By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen [Editor’s Note, 12 October: Parliament passed the resolution, with amendments, according to informed sources. Details to follow soon.] Members of the European Parliament will vote on 12 October on a resolution that would give the…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch European copyright owners’ organisations, consumer groups and artists’ collecting societies voiced strong differences of opinion on the importance of, and need for, digital rights management (DRM) systems to spur development of Internet content…
By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen Developing countries say they will push their proposal on biodiversity and the European Union is sharply stepping up its call for enforcement, but otherwise the preliminary agenda of an upcoming World Trade Organization meeting on…