Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Members of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) are working to stage a diplomatic conference on the adoption of a new industrial design treaty at the earliest opportunity. The treaty, at the minimum, could harmonise certain aspects in design law, an area in intellectual property marked by stark differences in national procedures.
All the experts agree: US copyright law doesn’t apply outside US borders. But try telling that to Kim Dotcom, Aubrey Canning, or the growing number of other foreigners whose activities outside the United States have resulted in sanctions under US copyright law.
The Free University of Brussels has set out to map predominant normative and causal beliefs regarding IP laws and policies. To give your input and participate in the survey, click on www.surveymonkey.com/s/IP_Community.
Ukraine yesterday filed a World Trade Organization dispute settlement case against Australia for its 2011 law requiring plain packaging on tobacco in an effort to address the severe public health problem related to its use. The case could represent an important measure of the power of trade interests versus public health decisions by governments.
Operators and internet service providers in Europe resort mostly to blocking voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) and peer-to-peer traffics to guard the security of and prevent congestion on their networks, according to a preliminary report from the European Union telecommunications regulator, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).
US President Barack Obama wants the country’s Justice Department to get by with a bit less money next fiscal year – but not when it comes to prosecuting overseas infringers of American IP rights.
Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla opened the 43rd meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in San Jose with concern about “attempts to regulate the network among which we have the Stop Online Piracy Act seeking protection of intellectual property by restrictions on the addressing and the Protect intellectual Property Act seeking to extend some national jurisdiction towards the entire cyberspace.”
International trademark applications filed in 2011 reached a record high of 42,270 applications and a year-on-year growth of 6.5 per cent as businesses resolved to protect their brands despite last year's shaky economic situation, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reported today.
The US Commerce Department National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has cancelled its request for proposal for the management of the internet root zone file, a core piece of infrastructure for the global domain name system (DNS) that helps users to navigate the net.
A United States congressional representative has posted the text of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to the internet and is calling for public comments out of the fear that the agreement will harm the open internet.
The number of cybersquatting cases filed with the arbitration body of the World Intellectual Property Organization reached a record high in 2011 with 2,764 cases filed by trademark owners, the UN agency reported today. WIPO also expressed alarm over the potential impact on cybersquatting of a move underway to add more generic domain names to the internet.
There will be more than 50 important meetings talking internet in 2012, and activists and government alike have started calling for streamlining or better cooperation and focus. Yet what might make 2012 a very notable year with regard to the politics of the net is not these meetings, but the rising storms blowing over the net regarding day to day internet politics. The preliminary stop of the un-beloved SOPA/PIPA legislation in the United States and the unexpected hesitation of Europe to sign the controversial ACTA agreement gave a first taste of a hot year in internet governance.