Original news and analysis on international IP policy
BANGKOK - Thailand plans to toughen its intellectual property protection law to punish, for the first time, buyers of products that breach copyright and trademark laws, aiming primarily at pirated music and movies and fake brand-name goods, a senior Thai official said Thursday.
A well-liked and influential IP policymaker in Geneva will head Chile’s national IP office, a US lawyer responsible for perhaps the world’s biggest industry patent portfolio will head the US IP office, and a fixture in the Geneva international trade negotiating and lobbying community is heading home to Canada.
After months of private consultations, it was no surprise that the World Intellectual Property Organization Coordination Committee – the 83-member executive body – easily approved the director general’s new cabinet this week, albeit with a few notes for the future. And a previously prepared plan for financial disclosure by upper staff also sailed through. But the bulk of discussions over the intense two-day meeting were on details of a proposal by the director general to encourage a reduction in staff in the face of the global economic crisis, which members approved after long consideration and some modifications.
The member governments of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s executive body on Monday approved a set of seven most senior officials at the organisation to join the director general late this year. Monday's Coordination Committee meeting also will address new policies on financial disclosure and conflicts of interest among top WIPO officials, and voluntary staff departures in the face of smaller budgets.
L’argument souvent utilisé par les législateurs contre la communication Internet qui veut que ce qui est valable dans l’univers physique l’est aussi en ligne a été utilisé par le Conseil de l’Europe dans une nouvelle résolution concernant les droits fondamentaux en ligne.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative on Friday said it had reviewed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) under negotiation and has decided to move ahead on the treaty. Negotiating countries will meet in Morocco in July, and the targeted completion is still 2010.
The coming months could spell changes in the long-running World Trade Organization talks on creating a register for wines and spirits geographical indications and amending WTO rules to better protect biodiversity rights. Developed countries that have been blocking progress on the issues for years may be pushed at a political level, according to some sources.
BANGKOK - The European Union told Asian countries Thursday that protecting geographical indications of their products would benefit their poor, rural people as the EU is offering to renew its intellectual property cooperation with regional countries with GI enforcement as a greater element.
BRUSSELS - India’s status as a top world supplier of generic medicines could be threatened by a free trade agreement its government is negotiating with the European Union, a new study has concluded. Separately, the World Customs Organization has abandoned its intellectual property rights enforcement group, replacing it with a non-policymaking information committee.
WASHINGTON, DC - France's "three strikes" law is both "ambitious" and "realistic," French culture and communication minister Christine Albanel told a conference Tuesday, and anyone who thinks the internet can be a lawless arena where anything goes is "in the wrong century." Also at the conference, predictions were made on US legislation on patent reform, performance rights and other issues.
What applies offline is also valid online - an argument often used against internet communication by legislators - has been turned around to underline fundamental rights on the internet in a new resolution of the Council of Europe.
A commission under the United Nations charged with monitoring progress in improving science and technology in places where access is difficult and capacity to use that access scarce, concluded its recent annual meeting with draft resolutions on internet and society and on development and science. One notes that there is still much work to be done to bridge the ‘digital divide’ that creates disparities in access to information technology and knowledge in the world; the other calls on governments and UN institutions to find innovative ways to support innovative capacity.