Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) has finished a draft intellectual property law that would help pave the way for fuller membership in the Geneva institutions, according to a local news source from the country. The unconfirmed article says EIPO…
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is considering a deferred-examination procedure to help reduce the backlog of the more than 770 million patent applications that have not yet been looked at. And the US Congress may be willing to help give the agency the authority to do so in this year's patent-reform legislation.
This year could be a transitional one for global internet governance policy, as the internet’s technical oversight body may finally lose its ties to the United States, the next generation internet comes into its own, the UN Internet Governance Forum will be reviewed, and the world could see the rapid spread of new internet domains.
Constant vigilance is needed to protect intellectual property rights in sports from creative efforts by “ambush marketers” and others seeking to take unauthorised advantage of sports events, event organisers say.
The World Health Organization global strategy on public health, innovation and intellectual property calls for the exploration of alternative mechanisms to incentivise research and development, including the use of prize funds. A diverse group of non-governmental agencies, government and pharmaceutical industry representatives recently looked at prize funds in detail, to determine different possible approaches and where they might best be applied to medical innovations.
The Intellectual Property Watch Monthly Edition features top news on international IP policymaking, the latest on who is coming and going in the international IP community, news briefs and more. The February edition is now available for subscribers.
The Year Ahead: Copyright has taken centre stage again this year as the battle over internet service provider (ISP) responsibility for digital piracy intensifies and spreads around the world. 2009 will also feature growing global pressure for a more harmonised system of copyright limitations and exceptions, and continuing controversy over the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
By Kaitlin Mara and William New Antony Taubman, acting director and head of the Global Intellectual Property Issues Division at the World Intellectual Property Organization, has been named to the top IP position at the World Trade Organization, the WTO…
By William New The ambassadors to the World Trade Organization from Brazil and India on Tuesday charged that other WTO members had no grounds to block legitimate shipping of generic medicines on the basis of potential intellectual property rights conflicts…
By Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch
2009 could be a bad year for IP owners in the United States.
For patent owners, it may be particularly tough. The US courts are likely to continue their recent trend of cutting back on patent rights, according to many experts. The question is: what rights may be cut back and by how much?
Copyright and trademark owners in the United States face a different set of troubles. They are struggling to protect their rights in the digital world, and it is far from certain how they will fare.
By William New The World Intellectual Property Organization saw record patent filings again in 2008, but the rate of growth is slowing, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry said Tuesday. Meanwhile, the WIPO secretariat is privately exploring with member governments ways…
James Boyle is a leading thinker on copyright and knowledge access, and is author of a new book called The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind (available at thepublicdomain.org or here as a PDF).