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Standards-Setting Organisations Increasingly Make IPR A Priority

Washington, DC - Standards guide many aspects of our lives. They instruct how telephones talk to each other, how the life sciences community shares information, how electrical devices are charged, and how the internet runs, among other things.

It’s standard-setting organisations (SSOs) that facilitate discussions among stakeholders - including intellectual property owners and users - and produce common, typically voluntary technical standards to address needs and concerns of those using the technology. Companies need to make compatible or interoperable products that comply with these standards in order to compete in the global marketplace. And intellectual property is increasingly coming into play in the development of these standards.

EU Rights Owners Blast ICT Industry For Trying To “Hijack” Copyright Levy System Talks

Copyright collective management and creators' organisations Monday accused digital technology industry group DIGITALEUROPE of trying to hijack a mediation process aimed at straightening out the EU's messy system of private copying and reprographic levies. In its 4 October paper setting out alternatives to device-based copyright levies, DIGITALEUROPE urged the European Commission to initiate comprehensive reform that includes replacing levies with some other forms of compensation to rights holders.

Panellists: Global Health Justice Needs Government Commitment, New Innovation Models

Global health needs innovation but also to ensure equitable access for the world population, panellists at a roundtable said last week. At issue is the capacity of the pharmaceutical industry to innovate, and the potential barriers to access in a context of widespread diseases that blur the boundaries between developed and developing countries. Most panellists concluded that governments should hold primary responsibility for the health of their populations.

New ICANN CEO Promises More Transparency And Balance

The new CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Fadi Chehadé, today announced a new structure to enhance transparency, visibility and balance of the private net managing body to be presented on the opening day of the Toronto meeting.

UN High-Level Meeting In India On Biodiversity Addresses Access And Benefit-Sharing

At the ongoing 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad, the hot topic is funds and how to mobilize it. The mega-conference is taking place in the shadow of a global economic slowdown, and delegates gathered at this southern Indian city are most concerned about how to drum up funds to tackle the world’s shrinking biodiversity - the variety of animal and plant life on earth.

ITU Undertakes Work On Standards Essential Patents

The United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has tasked an expert group on intellectual property rights with coming up with ways to update ITU patent policy with an eye toward clarifying litigation involving “standards-essential patents.”

Talks Ongoing To Raise Quality Of International Patents

Big patent offices worldwide are leading talks to raise the quality of international patents under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). This comes as it has become harder, yet more urgent than ever, for stakeholders to inject some reforms into the more than four-decade old system amid the unprecedented rise in applications and faster technology turnaround.

GI Protection Gets Boost In BRICs; Common Definition Needed For International Debates

The protection of geographical indications at the international level is a brainteaser which translates into lack of progress in several fora, to the dismay of geographical indications proponents, according to speakers at an event last week. A publication was launched by GIs advocates at the event, aimed at providing producers in emerging economies with useful tools to protect their GIs.