Category IP-Watch Briefs

Nine organisations representing the technology industry, libraries, digital rights and privacy interests have sent a letter to United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk urging that issues related to the internet be dropped from negotiations for an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).…

United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk on Thursday announced new measures to strengthen the enforcement of the country’s trade rights seen as a key part of US economic recovery and growth strategy. “Our new approach to enforcement is simple,” Kirk…

McDonald’s is shifting its European headquarters to Geneva in an apparent attempt to avoid new tax rules in the United Kingdom that would result in double taxation of revenues earned from intellectual property rights, according to a spokeswoman for McDonald’s…

“Maintaining HIV/AIDS treatment to keep people alive will cripple developing economies, or place unbearable strains on richer countries trying to support them and action is needed now, to avert crisis later,” says a report released this week by a cross-cutting…

Novartis’s patent application for Glivec, a blood cancer drug, was recently ruled not patentable by the Intellectual Property Appellate Board of India (IPAB) for failing to meet the requirements under section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act, which states that…

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…

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…

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.…

Journal articles by professors at the University of Kansas (US) will soon be freely available online, the school reported, as it becomes the first public university in the United States to embrace an “open access” policy. The university joins ranks…

In addition to writing catchy pop-tunes and executing gravity-defying dance moves, the late Michael Jackson apparently had an inventive streak. It has come to light that the singer holds a patent on shoes that help create “an impressive visual effect”…