Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Over the revelations of mass surveillance of internet users and government officials, the topic of internet governance has risen to the mainstream political agenda. And a Communication on “Europe's role in shaping the future of Internet Governance” passed by the European Commission today would put “Europe in the center of the debate,” EC Vice President Neelie Kroes said in a press conference in Brussels.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative today published its annual list of online and physical marketplaces worldwide that are most engaged in sales and trafficking of counterfeit and pirated goods.
Member states of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization, the global body for international IP policy issues, will vote on 6 March for the next WIPO director general for six years. Intellectual Property Watch asked the candidates four key questions. Here are their responses.
On 6 March, the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization will hold its once-every-six-year election for a director general, a prized post in the multilateral system. Tomorrow (4 February), the candidates will face member states and take questions. Intellectual Property Watch explains the process.
The 54-member African Union last week declared its support for Geoffrey Onyeama as a candidate for director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization.
At the Munich Security Conference a year ago, there was a considerable first push for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Eight months after the start of official TTIP negotiations and with the Snowden revelations in between, the tone at the 50th edition of the high-level foreign policy event in Munich is somewhat changed.
The United States Chamber of Commerce Global Intellectual Property Center this week released a report ranking 25 countries on their IP environment.
Those interested in internet governance will have to put some money aside for 2014: rarely have there been so many conferences to talk about how to manage core internet resources and develop the common rules to govern more general aspects of global net communication.
The recent World Intellectual Property Organization Conference on Open Innovation: Collaborative Projects and the Future of Knowledge showed the potential of open collaborative innovation in confronting some of today’s greatest challenges. This model of innovation is used in industries ranging from health research and solutions to climate change to film production and museum design.
Copyright tops the European Union intellectual property agenda this year, with completion of a collective rights management directive, and European Commission statements on IP rights enforcement and possible revisions to EU copyright rules, due this spring. “Steady progress” on rollout of a unified EU patent and patent court system is expected, and trademark and other issues also figure prominently. But with European Parliament elections in May, and a new Commission in November, the timetables for these and other IP-related issues could shift, the EC and others said.
European Union Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht today announced a three-month public consultation on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Richard Hill, an independent consultant in Geneva who was formerly a senior staff member at the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU), recently published, “The New International Telecommunication Regulations and the Internet: A Commentary and Legislative History.” In a set of questions with Intellectual Property Watch’s William New, Hill talked about his book, which explains the significance of the 1988 and 2012 International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) and covers the preparatory process leading up to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). The book also discusses the events leading to the non-signature by the treaty of a significant number of states, outlines possible consequences of that split between states, and offers possible ways forward.