Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Media giants Virgin Media and Universal Music have teamed up to create the world’s first unlimited digital download service that comes with the blessing of content owners – though only for residents of the United Kingdom. Britons using Virgin Media’s…
An expert body on traditional knowledge as it relates to an access and benefit-sharing regime on genetic resources began discussion Tuesday in India. They will examine the way in which proposed aspects of the regime relate to indigenous communities and…
Facebook users starting Saturday will get the chance to add a nickname of their choice to the web address of their profiles. These new usernames, which will make Facebook addresses easier to find and easier to remember, are being assigned…
Warnings about a possible split of the single root zone underlying the global internet have been made by internet governance experts outside the United States following a hearing of the US congressional Subcommittee on Communication Technologies and the Internet on…
The Swedish Pirate Party harvested 7.1 percent of the Swedish vote in preliminary results from the European Parliament elections on Sunday, 7 June, according to official sources. The Party aims to fundamentally reform copyright law, get rid of the patent…
The practice of brand name companies paying generic manufacturers to delay the entry of lower-priced generics into the market could become illegal, if a bill before the United States House of Representatives passes. The bill (available here [pdf]) is “to…
China is blocking its citizens’ access to leading international social media and news websites in the lead-up to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square anti-democracy massacre in Beijing. Media and information sharing sites such as Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, and…
Names and biographies of the seven people who will likely lead the World Intellectual Property Organization secretariat under Director General Francis Gurry have been officially released on the WIPO website here [pdf]. Intellectual Property Watch reported on the new deputy…
The United States Supreme Court, the nation’s highest court, has decided to review a case involving patenting of business methods, which could have a significant impact on the future of patenting. On 30 October 2008, the US Federal Circuit Court…
With US health resources, a “wide gap remains between what can be done with existing knowledge and what is actually being done” says a new report by the National Academies Institute of Medicine, which is meant to advise the Obama…