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Governments Eye DRM Interoperability Rules As Consumers Vent Over Access

By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch LONDON – Increasing consumer demand for accessing online content anytime, anywhere is politicizing copyright, speakers said last week at the Digital Hollywood Europe conference here. Frustration over restrictive and incompatible digital rights management…

Balancing Patents and Standards Seen As Key For Mobile Phone Industry

By William New
Technology companies have long recognised the importance to their economic growth of patents and standards, but increasingly they are focusing on the intersection of the two in order to seek changes to the patent system, industry experts told an event at the World Intellectual Property Organization on 29 November.

The presenters were Tim Frain, director of IPR in the regulatory affairs department of Nokia Corporation, and Paul Davey, director of intellectual property at the Vodafone Group.

Both industry representatives encouraged government officials in the audience to consider legislative remedies to problems they perceive in patents interfering with standards related to technological innovation.

Davey and Frain discussed concerns that some holding licenses for technology may not be willing to recognise the need for access to standard-related patents in order to ensure the interoperability of technologies. Frain argued that the current patent regime "may no longer be sufficient," and suggested a legislative change might be necessary.

États-Unis : les démocrates pourraient freiner les négociations d’accords commerciaux, mais peu de changements sont prévus en matière de propriété intellectuelle

Par Martin Vaughan pour Intellectual Property Watch WASHINGTON DC – La nouvelle majorité démocrate à la Chambre des représentants et au Sénat des États-Unis pose de nouveaux obstacles aux accords commerciaux de l’administration Bush. Toutefois, les observateurs et les responsables…

Proposal Could Create New Biotech Benefits In WHO Public Medicine System

By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen The biotechnology industry has proposed to change the international generic naming of medicine ingredients, which at the moment are public property, into unique names for each medicine, making it harder to substitute them with cheaper…