Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The World Customs Organization at its annual assembly in late June replaced a controversial group on counterfeiting and piracy with a softer dialogue mechanism that may defuse earlier concerns of potential overreaching on intellectual property infringement by customs officials. But it added a new mandate on health to a separate committee on enforcement that could raise new concerns.
A French bill to protect literary and artistic intellectual property rights on the internet passed the French Senate last night with 189 votes in favour over 142 votes against its adoption. A law creating a high-level authority for the protection…
Pharmaceutical companies are manipulating the intellectual property rights system and are “actively trying to delay the entry of generic medicines onto their markets,” a top EU official said of an EU inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector released Wednesday. As a result, there has been a decline in the number of innovative medicines getting to the market, it says.
The closely held date of the next negotiating meeting on the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) is 16-17 July in Morocco, according to an official source. The ACTA negotiation has roiled activists and others for being conducted mostly in secret with…
NAIROBI - Three HIV/AIDS patients in Kenya announced Tuesday they will petition the country's Constitutional Court to declare a new anti-counterfeiting act illegal because it could deny them access to generic medicines. The move, which has the support of public health groups across the country, seeks to have the 2008 Anti-Counterfeiting Act made unconstitutional on the grounds that it could rob them of their right to life.
With three important processes coming to a head at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) this year, it is difficult not to overlook some changes in the private body, which oversees the internet domain name system. At ICANN's recent board meeting, the appointment of a shiny new CEO, former United States Homeland Security Department cybersecurity director Rod Beckstrom, drew attention away from top issues, which include the introduction of new top-level domains, ongoing institutional reform, and the looming September expiration of the ICANN-US government agreement.
One month after the French government’s so-called HADOPI law aimed at preventing online illegal downloading was partly censored by the French Constitutional Council, the government has continued its push and is presenting a new law restoring the punishing arm of…
World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan on Monday urged governments and others to incorporate a “moral dimension” into trade, finance, food security and public health as the world works to correct harm done by “greed” and right itself economically.…
The World Intellectual Property Organization committee on the protection of indigenous knowledge, expressions and genetic resources failed to reach consensus on future work Friday, putting the future of the committee in the hands of the WIPO General Assemblies in September.
Innovation and technology will be key to emergence from the global economic crisis, according to speakers at a recent United Nations conference on innovation-based competitiveness. However, innovation should be collaborative and involve resources inside and outside companies and institutions.
A recent United States Supreme Court order letting stand a decision that a proposed remote digital video recorder does not violate copyright law has major implications for internet “cloud computing” and advertisers, intellectual property lawyers say.
World Intellectual Property Organization members this week are intensively working toward agreement on a proposal to start negotiations for a tool to better protect traditional knowledge, genetic resources, and traditional cultural expressions, after nearly a decade of talking about the subject.