Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The UN-led World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS) 2018 opened its doors this week, with over 2,500 participants. This year, the focus is on sustainable development. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary General Houlin Zhao underlined the importance of reducing the digital divide in a press briefing this morning.
A group of countries submitted a new proposal for the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on trademarks and geographical indications, set to meet next month, to protect country names and geographical names. The proponents suggest that this proposal, if adopted by the WIPO General Assembly, could influence the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' second round of registration for new generic top-level domain names.
Cambodia has become the first country to join a 2015 agreement at the World Intellectual Property Organization aimed at strengthening protection of geographical indications (GIs). The Asian nation has several GIs it is seeking to protect, such as the Kampot pepper. But it might seem surprising that almost three years later, the group of European countries that fought so hard to conclude the treaty back in 2015 still have not acceded to it.
A coalition of companies holding patents in Europe has welcomed conclusions released this week by the Council of the European Union on tougher enforcement of intellectual property rights. But the group raised concern that the conclusions failed to recognise the steady rise in the EU of patent-assertion entities, or patent trolls.
Countries highly dependent on intellectual property rights do little to educate people not working in the IP field about the importance of such rights, an industry-backed study has found.
KAMPALA, Uganda -- In what is seen as a significant achievement in the making of history of intellectual property law, the Government of Zimbabwe has instituted and operationalised an Intellectual Property Tribunal, with the mandate to speedily preside over all IP matters, disputes, infringements, passing off and other related issues. The Tribunal recently heard its first case. [A reminder to readers: All IP-Watch stories are totally free for least-developed countries and almost all developing countries. Just sign up for a password under Subscribe.]
US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information David Redl today weighed in on the debate over changes to the storage and public display of personal information of domain name registrants at the meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Redl urged negotiators to keep the so-called Whois database, described by some as a public phone book for the owners of domain names, as open as possible while implementing the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union.
The European Council of ministers today adopted a set of conclusions on the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the European Union, aimed at improving protection in the digital era and promoting innovation. This includes a list of suggested actions, including possible changes to national laws and judicial systems, bolstering customs, agreements with industry, encouraging open source, strong representation at the World Intellectual Property Organization, and possibly setting up an IP watch list reminiscent of the one in the United States.
Some of the data collection practices of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), private overseer over the domain name industry, “appear to be excessive, disproportionate, and obtained without the free consent of the individual,” the International Working Group on Data Protection in Telecommunications (IWGDPT) wrote in a paper published on the eve of the 61st ICANN meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico (9-15 March). During the meeting, controversial discussions about ICANN's just-published interim model for compliance with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can be expected after ICANN published a “cookbook” for GDPR compliance.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is on track to offer "the most advanced and detailed standards on intellectual property in a trade agreement to date" despite revisions scaling back the IP chapter after the United States dropped out, says the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).