Category Trademarks/Geographical Indications/Domains

Year Ahead Copyright 2010: Between An Enforcement “Gold Standard” And Stronger Limitations

The secretly negotiated Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is now in centre stage in the global debates around copyright, as is a prospective new international treaty on access to online books for the visually impaired which comes as part of a broader push to clarify limitations and exceptions to copyright. But some are asking, why all the debate and new efforts in national and international copyright legislation when copyright is increasing being exchanged for contractual relationships?

ACTA Negotiators Report No Breakthroughs On Transparency

Offering no details - as is their standard - government negotiators for a global anticounterfeiting treaty yesterday declared a commitment to try to find ways to increase transparency and inclusion of public input in the secretive talks. But they stopped short of actually committing to increasing transparency and inclusion.

Biodiversity ‘EcoChic’ At UN: “Organic, Fair Trade, And Damn Sexy”

img_3154_3 Biodiversity preservation is getting a makeover, or so hope the organisers of an “EcoChic” event at the Palais de Nations yesterday. Attendees strategised about how the fickle spirit of fashion might be harnessed to support the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s access and benefit-sharing regime and sustainability goals, as staff carefully anchored helium-filled white lanterns above a normally staid conference chamber and participants balanced on noticeably higher heels than normally seen in UN corridors.

Year Ahead: Range Of IP Policy Issues May See Action In United States In 2010

With the United States Congress attempting to wrap up healthcare – a move made more difficult after a Republican won a traditionally Democratic US Senate seat in January - issues such as tax increases for the nation’s largest financial institutions, energy reform and others may take centre stage. But that’s not to say there is not some room for intellectual property issues to be considered. Upcoming issues may include patent reform, biologic drugs, internet neutrality, enforcement, and performance rights.

Year Ahead: Stronger Protection, Harmonisation Among Goals For Trademarks And GIs In 2010

Enforcement of rights and a global harmonisation of systems look to be among the focal points of trademark and geographical indications policy in 2010. Significant activity will occur in these areas in Europe. But whether it is the setting up of a database for trademark registration, amendments to the Lisbon Treaty on the Protection of Appellation of Origin, or the evaluation of the European trademark system, efforts to improve current tools are showing at national and international levels.

IP System Soul-Searching In Face Of Success, System Overload

The intellectual property system seems to be tight at the seams with a global overload of work for national IP offices and a backlog in patent requests. Further international cooperation and some adjustments are necessary to keep an efficient high quality IP system, according to speakers at a private-sector meeting in Geneva on 14-15 January.