Original news and analysis on international IP policy
This week the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a proposed rule to amend the existing rules of practice for inter partes review, post-grant review, the transitional program for covered business method patents and derivation proceedings that implemented provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA).
A government-ordered review of Australia's intellectual property arrangements could either resolve many important and long-standing issues or prove to be yet another political exercise in futility, academics say.
Indigenous Peoples' knowledge and creativity is a valuable source of inspiration for all, but might benefit from being better protected, the head of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization said this month. WIPO is currently negotiating an international instrument or instruments to better protect genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions (folklore).
By Eric F. Barton, Esq., Seyfarth Shaw LLP There is no question that social media privacy issues now permeate the workplace. In an attempt to provide further guidance and regulation in this area, since April 2012, a growing number of…
The ability for a member of the World Trade Organization to challenge another member for deprivation of benefits even though this member has not violated any given WTO agreement does not presently apply to intellectual property.
For years, the issue has been debated in the WTO intellectual property committee, with no conclusive outcome. Last month, a group of 17 developing countries submitted a draft decision for the upcoming WTO ministerial conference in December to lastingly ban intellectual property-related non-violation complaints, stepping ahead of the next meeting of the WTO IP committee to be held in October.
India can play a leadership role to inspire developing countries in environmental policy-making, according to a new paper. Using its experience, India should further enhance South-South cooperation through an action plan including the establishment of a cooperation platform focussing on issues such as climate change, traditional knowledge, innovation, and intellectual property rights.
Trade secret theft is a top risk for companies today. When the worst does happen and trade secrets are compromised, companies must prove that reasonable steps have been taken to protect a company’s crown jewels. But determining what "reasonable steps" are can be challenging. Governments have been vague about the term's definition; and laws and legislation continue to evolve on this issue. However, court actions do provide insight on the ‘reasonable steps requirement’ and point to the need for companies to embed trade secret protection into business operations to qualify as legal protection, writes Pamela Passman.
Failure to reach agreement over expanded intellectual property (IP) protections for medicines has proven to be a stumbling block to completion of the 12-country Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations. As expected, the US is continuing to pressure negotiating partners to adopt broader and longer monopoly protections for medicines. But the risks for their health systems are very high – and will be much higher if they don’t stick together in rejecting the US demands.
As part of a series of publications on investment treaties and investor-state dispute settlement, a developing country multilateral organisation released a policy brief focusing on Ecuador's experience and action against the current dispute settlement system.
STRASBOURG – As UN Special Rapporteur Farida Shaheed prepares to finalise a second consecutive report on the connection between the right to science and culture and patent policy, two well-known academics took the floor at the University of Strasbourg Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) recently to share their views and hopes for this long-awaited paper.
The World Intellectual Property Organization patent law committee today agreed on work programme going forward that includes a balance of North-South issues such as patent quality, patents and health, client-attorney privilege, technology transfer, and exceptions to patents. Agreement on the work program was difficult despite a comparatively fast-moving week of progress on these same areas of work.
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