Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The French Constitutional Council on Wednesday decided that two articles of a newly passed law creating a graduated punishment mechanism for alleged copyright infringement on the internet did not comply with the French Constitution. The government has options to proceed with changes reflecting the setback to the so-called HADOPI law.
WASHINGTON, DC - Copyright holders on Wednesday acknowledged they have done a poor job of countering the "anti-copyright" lobby and demonstrating the creative community's value to the world.
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.
Warnings about a possible split of the single root zone underlying the global internet have been made by internet governance experts outside the United States following a hearing of the US congressional Subcommittee on Communication Technologies and the Internet on…
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.
Seizures of legal generic drugs was the focus of heated discussion Monday at the World Trade Organization Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), raising questions about the implementation of enforcement measures in the European Union.
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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.
The Swedish Pirate Party harvested 7.1 percent of the Swedish vote in preliminary results from the European Parliament elections on Sunday, 7 June, according to official sources. The Party aims to fundamentally reform copyright law, get rid of the patent…
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.
Now even trademark owners and large businesses do not really agree on the planned extension of the internet domain name system to include hundreds of new top-level domains (TLDs) like .com.
Health advocates have raised alarm over reports that several million pills of generic medicine were held up in Frankfurt airport in May despite being destined for a different port. And new information has come to light indicating Dutch seizures were more numerous than originally thought. These developments have prompted outcry and the assertion that a European-wide law on customs and intellectual property is problematic.