Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Substantive progress eluded the negotiators of a draft protocol on biodiversity access and benefit sharing last week in Montreal, according to participating sources. The third attempt at finding consensus on key aspects of the text was unsuccessful and negotiations will carry on at the major United Nations meeting on biodiversity next month in Japan.
Echoes of the struggles and advances in patent policy around the world were heard this week in the annual meeting of the member governments of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization. At stake is no less than the future of societies everywhere.
India’s laws on traditional knowledge are yielding interesting positive and negative results, writes Mohan Dewan.
Countries negotiating a semi-secret trade agreement against piracy and counterfeiting this week in Tokyo are still aiming to reach agreement by the end of this year, a negotiator told Intellectual Property Watch today. The negotiator also did not reject outright the notion that patents might still be included in the draft treaty text, instead saying it is still a matter for discussion.
More than a dozen ambassadors to the World Trade Organization met today at the New Zealand mission in Geneva to discuss the state of negotiations related to intellectual property rights and trade.
A new rival to the World Intellectual Property Organization is being created away from the tempering effect of public scrutiny, which could result in limits on the free movement of knowledge or products subject to IP rights, a civil society representative said yesterday.
Patent offices around the world must work together to combat the inefficiencies in patent processing that threaten to stifle innovation and as a result slow needed growth of the global economy, David Kappos, director of the US Patent and Trademark Office said today.
Five years after the tale began in Athens, the United Nations Internet Governance Forum returned to Europe last week to ask itself what has been achieved. The answer was encouraging enough to prompt a range of internet stakeholders to suggest continuation of the group, this time with a greater focus on concrete outcomes.
The multilateral system with its different agencies dealing with specific areas is sometimes seen as incoherent in global negotiations and norm-setting as there are overlaps in competency, definition and scope, according to speakers at a side event to the recent World Trade Organization Public Forum.
A Spanish group lobbying for alternative ways to protect and promote creative production has been asked to cease activity or face a lawsuit for damages, unfair competition and infringement by the Spanish collecting society SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores), according to the group. The collecting society also charged that the lobbying group is undermining its reputation.
Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter and UN Messenger of Peace Stevie Wonder today called on the governments of the World Intellectual Property Organization to create a system for copyright law to assist those with disabilities in getting access to education and reading materials. It is time to "declare a state of emergency and end the information deprivation that continues to keep the visually impaired in the dark," he told assembled delegates.
The second global symposium of intellectual property authorities met last week at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva to discuss global IP infrastructure and collaboration between IP offices, particularly in ways that might bring greater benefit to small offices.