Original news and analysis on international IP policy
One of the features of the multi-faceted United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization is its arbitration and mediation of disputes over internet domain names. At a conference at WIPO today, supporters and lawyers who use the system said it is working but suggested some further improvements and a fear of more new domains being introduced.
Sixty years after its foundation, the Council of Europe is reconsidering its role and place in the architecture of European institutions. One new development is the drafting of a convention against medicines counterfeiting.
The new work plan for negotiations for the coming months at the World Trade Organization includes intellectual property issues that some members say are critical to any outcome in the current round of trade negotiations.
Anti-counterfeiting initiatives might have a negative impact on access to medicines while not addressing the problem of fake medicines, particularly in developing countries, according to panellists at a recent event organised by the Open Society Institute.
After a year of stalled deliberations on the issue of protecting traditional knowledge, genetic resources, and traditional cultural expressions, delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assemblies on Thursday found a compromise text that gives the committee its strongest mandate yet.
A mere “affirmation of commitments” (AoC) between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the United States Department of Commerce has replaced the decade-old joint project agreement in place in different forms since ICANN started technical coordination of names and numbers on the net in 1998.
世界知识产权组织（World Intellectual Property Organization）总干事今天在该联合国机构的年度大会开幕式上说，如果世界知识产权组织要保持决策上的影响力，它就必须能够在无论是最新的技术开发还是传统知识体系领域为创新制定标准。
With a day to go before the joint project agreement between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the United States Department of Commerce (DoC) is set to expire, calls for continuous US oversight role have been reiterated by US politicians and private-sector representatives who reason that this oversight is especially needed in the face of the planned introduction of new internet top-level domains like .shop.
Le problème, selon certains participants, est que ces ressources ont été allouées à des projets qui n'ont pas encore été approuvés. Le Comité du développement et de la propriété intellectuelle (CDIP) s’est réuni en novembre, puis en Avril, mais la prochaine réunion budgétaire n’aura pas lieu avant juillet, ce qui a amené de nombreux pays en développement à se demander comment des projets approuvés en novembre pouvaient être mis en œuvre rapidement alors même qu’ils ne disposent pas des ressources budgétaires nécessaires.
La Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (OMPI) debe tener la capacidad de fijar normas para la innovación, desde los avances de la tecnología más recientes hasta los sistemas de conocimientos tradicionales, si desea conservar su reconocimiento en la formulación de políticas, expresó hoy el Director General en la apertura de la Asamblea General anual del organismo de las Naciones Unidas.
The World Intellectual Property Organization must be able to set norms for innovation, from the latest development in technology to traditional knowledge systems, if it is to retain its relevance in policymaking, said its director general at the opening of the UN agency's annual General Assemblies today.
A key decision on WIPO’s agenda this week is the future of its committee on the protection of traditional knowledge and genetic resources, where agreement has proved unreachable over the last year.
The European Commission Trade Directorate today adopted a "communication on enhancing the enforcement of intellectual property rights" within the European Union internal market that aims at greater coordination but stops short of new legislative measures.