Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Jia Hepeng for Intellectual Property Watch BEIJING – With a newly revealed national strategy on intellectual property rights, China has vowed to place intellectual property in the centre of its political agenda. The outline of the national IP strategy…
By Wagdy Sawahel for Intellectual Property Watch Qatar has nearly doubled its research funding in a bid to create more intellectual property rights (IPRs) and promote the commercialisation of research. In a bid to promote advanced knowledge and education at…
By William New World Intellectual Property Organization members addressing international patent policy this week may end work early after an apparent agreement to recommend the continuation of the committee next year and a possible focus on some 20 issues. The…
By Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch
The United States has once again chipped away at patent rights. The country's highest court recently handed down a ruling that makes it harder for patent owners to impose limits on downstream users of their inventions.
The US Supreme Court's decision in Quanta Computer Inc. v. LG Electronics Inc., however, fails to address a major issue facing patent owners and their legal counsel: Can patent owners use conditional sales or licensing agreements to impose restrictions on downstream users?
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.