Category IP-Watch Briefs

US President Barack Obama’s trade policy for 2009 is now available, and is available from the US Trade Representative website.

The Kerala province of India earned two geographic indications, or product names associated with a particular place and characteristics, on rice varieties in November 2007. But, more than a year later, the farmers who grow those strains still have yet…

Many least developed countries have slipped further behind the most developed nations in information and communications technology access since 2002, the United Nations reported Monday. Sweden and its northern European neighbours again topped the list of the most connected countries,…

Gary Locke, the former governor of Washington State, is the latest pick of US President Obama for Commerce Secretary. The US Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby group based in Washington, DC, has reviewed his record on intellectual property. Posted…

Capacity to make vaccines needed to respond to pandemic influenza has increased 300 percent, according to collaborative study [pdf] by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) released Tuesday. However, it has…

As the world becomes increasingly digitised, the question of who owns the uploaded pieces of people’s lives — their photographs, their missives to friends, their posted musings and blog entries — is clearly an issue capable of generating a lot…

The Sri Lanka Tea Board, will seek intellectual property protection for Ceylon tea (which takes its title from a former name of the island nation), according to a business news source from the country. Protection is sought under the World…

Brendan McGivern, a partner at White & Case law firm in Geneva, issued an analysis of the recent decision by a World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel on a case filed by the United States against China over copyright, customs…

The UN International Telecommunication Union issued a report at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that found innovation, convergence and a little opportunism will lead the information and communications technology industry out of the current crisis. Read the report…

It is often unfortunate to see what the public servants of the World Intellectual Property Organization domain name arbitration centre must sift through to make decisions on internet name disputes, which generally reflect consumer tastes. In this case, media industry…

WASHINGTON – Timothy Kyle Dunaway, 24, of Wichita Falls, Texas, was sentenced today to 41 months in prison by US District Court Judge Reed O’Connor in Wichita Falls for selling counterfeit computer software through the internet in violation of criminal…

A Turkish firm, Grup Ofis Patents & Trademarks, has highlighted key concerns in Turkey’s new trademark legislation, which it said came into force in January 2009. Click here to read document.