Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Kaitlin Mara The World Intellectual Property Organization committee charged with discussing international patent law kicked off its first formal meeting in three years today with the election of a Chilean chair and the start of work on a WIPO…
By Kaitlin Mara Uganda this week submitted a plan for addressing its priority needs on trade and intellectual property to the World Trade Organization committee on IP, making the nation the first least-developed country to lay out a detailed strategy…
Wagdy Sawahel pour Intellectual Property Watch Les réactions de la communauté scientifique égyptienne sont mitigées à la suite de l’autorisation par l’Égypte de cultiver et de commercialiser une variété de maïs résistante aux organismes nuisibles. Cette annonce marque la première…
Por Wagdy Sawahel para Intellectual Property Watch El hecho de que Egipto haya autorizado recientemente el cultivo y la comercialización de una variedad de maíz resistente a plagas, lo que marcó la primera introducción legal de cultivos modificados genéticamente (MG)…
By Kaitlin Mara The World Intellectual Property Organization committee charged with coordinating relationships between national patent regimes will meet next week for the first time since an informal session in April 2006. It is the first formal convening since June…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch
New United States Patent and Trademark Office procedural rules governing ex parte appeals of rejected patent applications before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) have met with resistance from some patent attorneys, who argue they are unfair, unnecessary and will hurt smaller and foreign patent applicants. The USPTO said it adopted the rules, effective 10 December 2008, to streamline the handling of a growing number of such appeals.
By Wagdy Sawahel for Intellectual Property Watch With Egypt’s recent approval of the cultivation and commercialisation of a pest-resistant corn variety that marked the first legal introduction of genetically modified crops into the Arab world, the Egyptian scientific community is…
By Wagdy Sawahel for Intellectual Property Watch Iran has adopted a new law on the “registration of inventions, industrial designs and trademarks” in a bid to come to grips with the fast-paced changes in the world of trade and industry…
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch BRUSSELS – The ‘fragmented’ nature of Europe’s patent application system is harming small firms, a Brussels event has been told amid new efforts to harmonise it. Ever since the early 1970s, the European…
General Electric’s Ecomagination is an initiative launched in 2005 as a gathering/focal point for extant green technology as well as new research and development into clean technology. Ecomagination’s products include technologies for cleaner energy, notably wind turbines for collecting wind…
By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch
WASHINGTON, DC - A careful balance must be struck between ensuring the quality of the United States patent system - and the patents themselves - and antitrust law to ensure that new technologies and services can be brought to market, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, experts said in Washington Monday.
"Imbalance can result in less competition, less innovation," Deborah Garza, deputy assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's antitrust division, said during a meeting of the Intellectual Property Owners Association.
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch
A United States Patent and Trademark Office procedure for third-party patent challenges is in turmoil and needs rethinking, an investigation by an independent think tank has found. Though few in number so far, inter partes reexaminations are increasingly used in conjunction with, rather than as an intended replacement for, patent infringement litigation. On top of that, the USPTO is taking years to resolve the cases, leaving business plans in disarray.
The USPTO said it is working to cut delays in the system.