Original news and analysis on international IP policy
World Intellectual Property Organization delegates are meeting once again this week to try to advance a text that could become an international instrument to protect traditional knowledge. Substantial work needs to be done on the draft text, ands developing countries generally favour a legal binding instrument while developed countries would prefer a softer instrument.
The number of candidates seeking to be the next director general of the World Trade Organization has dropped from nine down to five.
This week, registry, registrar and user constituencies at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) complained about what they saw as deviations from the bottom-up multistakeholder process by late additions made to policies or by processes never being laid out to the community for review.
Small traders and businesses facing barriers to moving goods across African borders now can send a mobile phone text message alert that could help resolve the problems more quickly.
The publication by governments of additional safeguards for new top-level domains at this week‘s 46th meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) sparked warnings that the private net management body should avoid becoming a content regulator.
At an unprecedented rate, private companies are using "investor-state" provisions in trade agreements negotiated by governments to challenge foreign government regulations, often made on behalf of the public, a United Nations report has found. And the majority of target governments are developing or transition economies, most of the time being challenged by companies in developed countries.
A significant gap remains in advanced and developing economies' access to information technologies, according to the 2013 "Global Information Technology Report" released today by the World Economic Forum.
An alternative South African bill on the protection of traditional knowledge has been published in the official Government Gazette, and it would create a new system of intellectual property right specific to TK, according to South Africa experts.
Brand owners that have applied with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for their brand’s top level domain (TLD) are seeking to create their own constituency group.
A full room of country delegates and ambassadors gathered yesterday to celebrate the accession of India to the Madrid Protocol for the International Registration of Marks at the World Intellectual Property Organization. However, beyond the joy of accession, the recent decision of the Indian Supreme Court on a Novartis drug patent loomed in the room.
In an effort to improve internationalisation, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will open hubs in Singapore and Istanbul, to serve the Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa respectively. ICANN's headquarters in Los Angeles will become the hub serving the Americas.
Members of the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) are pushing for additional contractual clauses for applicants of new generic top-level domains (TLDs).