Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch WASHINGTON, DC – Private patent law attorneys should answer a higher calling and serve in the United States government so that experienced, practiced experts may help steer the country’s patent system toward…
A reminder to our readers: the first-ever Intellectual Property Watch survey is online – it’s simple and takes 5 minutes to complete! This is the time to tell the IP-Watch team what you like and dislike, what you would like…
By William New The leaders of the powerful United States Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday warned US trade negotiators to rein in the scope of negotiations on an international treaty against counterfeiting, and to make the process more transparent. At…
US senators Patrick Leahy (Democrat, Vermont) and Arlen Specter (Republican, Pennsylvania), the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, warned the US Trade Representative not to negotiate an overly broad Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and criticised the Bush administration for not…
Construction of a new office building at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) continues apace, with the expected completion date for the CHF153 million (US$137 million) project, October 2010, still on track (IPW, WIPO, 26 September 2008). When completed, the…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch In September 2009, the joint project agreement between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the United States government comes to a close. Now the organisation responsible for coordinating the…
By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch
NEW YORK - As the value of intellectual property increases in the innovation economy, an increasing number of IP owners are trying to guard their ideas and innovations through business-method patents, international trade agreements, biological patents and other forms of protection.
But amid the economic crisis roiling the financial markets around the world and trickling down to Main Street, intellectual property owners often need to weigh the costs and benefits of protecting their IP assets through litigation. Many companies say it is hard-knock times like these that make protecting their intellectual property even more vital.
By Kaitlin Mara World Intellectual Property Organization members last Friday set up a working group to consider improvements to an international agreement on appellations of origin – names of products reflecting particular cultural or environmental aspects of a geographic location.…
A much-heralded 2003 waiver to World Trade Organization intellectual property rules aimed at helping poor countries receive needed medicines they cannot produce themselves has brought little if any help five years later, according to governments and public health advocates. The…
By Bruce Gain for Intellectual Property Watch
Five years and over 30,000 lawsuits later, both sides in the music industry's legal battle against illegal file-sharing in the United States claim they are prevailing.
By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch In the waning days of this congressional session in the United States, US lawmakers are passing a flurry of intellectual property-related bills. One of the bills awaiting President Bush’s signature would create…
The Council of the European Union has prepared a confidential draft contribution to the World Intellectual Property Organization gap analyses on traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, which will be discussed at the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore from 13 to 17 October.