Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The United Nations human rights framework is being brought to bear on intellectual property law, in the hopes that the weight of expert voices in human rights can lead IP regimes toward a better balance between the needs of industry and the needs of public policy.
In the continued absence of a new model that adequately includes them, major global media groups remain concerned over revenues lost to unauthorised file-sharing decades after the arrival of the internet, and their focus is still on enforcement and extension of their rights.
World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy continues to be engaged on intellectual property issues as WTO members begin to revive broader trade negotiations. This week Lamy hosted the heads of the World Intellectual Property Organization and World Health Organization together, and then chaired a consultation with ambassadors on proposals to amend WTO rules on intellectual property and trade.
Word is out among Geneva diplomats that seven officials have been informally proposed to be the next cabinet of World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Francis Gurry.
En avril dernier, les membres de l’Organisation mondiale de la propriété intellectuelle (OMPI) ont entrepris des négociations complexes dans le but d’approuver un nouveau plan de mise en application des recommandations visant à accroître les efforts de l’OMPI en faveur du développement, comme l’ont déclaré des participants.
World Intellectual Property Organization members on Friday overcame anxiety about overreaching of the UN body and agreed to study the Patent Cooperation Treaty, including proposals aimed at improving the efficiency and implementation of the treaty, taking into account some members’ concerns.
PRAGUE - The current revolution in science and information was the topic of this year’s European Patent Forum, which brought together examiners, lawyers, policymakers and other patent professionals to discuss how the pace of the patent system can mesh with today’s whirlwind of technological change.
Meanwhile, European Patent Office (EPO) President Alison Brimelow informed her staff that she will “not be seeking extension” when her current three-year contract is up at the end of June 2010.
RIO DE JANEIRO - The interaction between pharmaceutical companies and physicians has been discussed intensely in the last three years in Brazil, and recently has come under heightened scrutiny.
The recent commem-oration of Earth Day and World IP Day raised the importance of IP rights to innovation and jobs, says David Hirschmann of the US Chamber of Commerce. How about calling it “Green Innovation Week”?
Behind the day-to-day policy and technical work at the World Intellectual Property Organization, member governments' lobbying of new Director General Francis Gurry to obtain top positions for national officials at WIPO has been intensive in recent weeks and is near conclusion, according to sources. Among the pack of possible names is a recent former director of the US Patent and Trademark Office, according to sources.