Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Five years after the tale began in Athens, the United Nations Internet Governance Forum returned to Europe last week to ask itself what has been achieved. The answer was encouraging enough to prompt a range of internet stakeholders to suggest continuation of the group, this time with a greater focus on concrete outcomes.
A Spanish group lobbying for alternative ways to protect and promote creative production has been asked to cease activity or face a lawsuit for damages, unfair competition and infringement by the Spanish collecting society SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores), according to the group. The collecting society also charged that the lobbying group is undermining its reputation.
The second global symposium of intellectual property authorities met last week at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva to discuss global IP infrastructure and collaboration between IP offices, particularly in ways that might bring greater benefit to small offices.
A frontline debate among many industry intellectual property lawyers in the United States is how to handle the explosion in use of online social networking media tools like Facebook, Twitter or FourSquare.
Private-sector experts and key government officials in the United States came together this week to discuss strategies for improving rules and procedures on intellectual property, and look for ways to maximise the value of company IP assets while cutting costs.
The World Trade Organization Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement has sparked decades of international debate over whether exporting stronger intellectual property norms to developing countries is beneficial or harmful.
The global economic crisis led to a significant drop in patent and trademarks filings in 2008 and particularly in 2009 but there are signs of recovery, according to the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2010 report released today. China is still showing vigorous growth and demand in intellectual property protection.
Everyone you ask this week about the Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement (ACTA) tells you that they’re just about to work their way through the new draft version to understand the implications of changes made during the recent negotiation round in Washington, DC. Massive changes to the text have been revealed by yet another leak of the draft treaty text being negotiated by 10 countries and the EU 27 member states.
European and Indian business not only have privileged access to information on the planned EU-India free trade agreement, they even set the agenda for this negotiation from the start. That is the conclusion of a study by the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and India FDI Watch published this week in Brussels and Delhi. Both organisations intend to appeal directly to the European Commission and the Indian government to stop negotiations as long as there is no access to negotiating positions and documents for all affected parties.
Developed countries are looking for ways to address the ongoing lack of intellectual property enforcement and efforts to bypass international trade obligations in the four biggest emerging global economies, as well as emulation of this behaviour by other emerging economies in particular as the four countries have a stronger voice in international fora, a panel of United States trade experts said this week.
The powerful World Intellectual Property Organization Program and Budget Committee is meeting this week for three days of discussions on a new strategic plan, the status of its audit function in the aftermath of past financial mismanagement, the financing of new projects related to the Development Agenda, and new policies on WIPO financial reserves, languages and investments.
An analysis of practices and policies involving intellectual property, technology transfer and development shows the difficulties of achieving a positive correlation between those areas, writes Cheikh Kane.