Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Criminals are increasingly blocking access to digitised intellectual property and then charging their victims ransom to get it back, as “ransomware” attacks become increasingly common and sophisticated.
How can traditional knowledge be protected against misappropriation and who should benefit from this protection is at the heart of discussions at the World Intellectual Property Organization this week. After over a two-year hiatus, WIPO delegates are resuming discussions this week on a potential treaty protecting traditional knowledge. The week’s focus is to find common understanding of core issues, such as the definition of traditional knowledge, and the scope of protection.
In a bid to push forward their ongoing membership negotiations with the European Union, two Balkan States have moved to further harmonise their intellectual property regulations in line with EU legislation. Albania's new copyright law will enter into force this October, and Montenegro's amended legislation on trademarks, industrial design and topographies of semiconductor products entered into force last July.
In Berlin, Hamburg and five other cities in Germany, some 320,000 citizens today protested against the adoption of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
The US Patent and Trademark Office continues to face claims of low patent quality despite a major initiative to address the situation. The agency has been the subject of several critical reports by oversight agencies and recently defended its patent quality improvements before Congress. Patent practitioners say that while patent quality may not actually have worsened over the past few years, the USPTO's ongoing lack of financial and other resources, and inconsistent judicial decisions, are among the factors causing problems.
Antimicrobial resistance had in the last decades emerged as a health issue, but only in the last couple of years has there been an understanding that we are facing a “global societal challenge and threat.” On a day-to-day basis, people worldwide are said to be driving resistance across human health and agriculture.
Industry research on music consumer behaviour has found changes in practices of accessing and listening to music. It has been found that, whilst paid audio streaming services grew, copyright infringement remains a significant problem. Next up? Stream ripping.
It is essential that policy makers reform the systems for financing R&D, and de-link the costs of R&D from the prices of products, says James Love.
The government of Switzerland has issued a defence of its national law on disclosure of origin of genetic resources in patent applications, finding fault with the interpretation of its law by the United States. The Swiss response comes on the eve of a World Intellectual Property Organization meeting on related issues.
Governments are urged to do more to promote the development of desperately-needed new medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics at affordable prices and address the failures of research and development (R&D) in a new report by Médecins Sans Frontières.
The European Court of Justice today ruled that a shop offering Wifi is not liable for copyright infringements on its network but may be forced by rightsholders to require passwords to use the network. [Update: Reactions are being added below]
Former US Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz today used a 3.5 hour hearing of a Senate subcommittee he chairs to attempt to scare the US Commerce Department National Telecommunications and Information Administration away at the last minute from its plans to transition out of its stewardship role for the internet root zone system.