Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The European Council has confirmed that it will support the request of least developed countries at the World Trade Organization for the extension of a waiver of intellectual property obligations for pharmaceutical products.
In 2007, a Polish company filed an application for a composite European Community trademark comprising the representation in colour of a crocodilian with its torso made up from the letters of the word "kajman" in printed characters for, among others, classes 18 (leather goods) and 25 (clothing, footwear).
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will launch in November the Enable Makeathon, a programme aimed at developing affordable solutions for persons with disabilities in rural areas.
At mid-point of the annual World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly, numerous items are unresolved, and several facilitators are in charge of finding consensus on draft decisions, in particular on norm-setting issues and the budget of the UN organisation.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership should expressly include an international treaty on cultural diversity, public broadcasters and a coalition have said.
IFRRO, the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations, has issued comments on the recent opinion offered by the European Copyright Society on European Court of Justice Case C-572/13, Hewlett-Packard Belgium v. Reprobel.
The London-based International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) today announced that a Russian court has ordered popular Russian social network vKontakte to use technology to effectively block infringement of two record companies.
US President Obama told world leaders at the United Nations today that a nation that tries to repress its people is doomed to failure, and that the new measure of the strength of nations is the success of its people, including their knowledge and creativity. Access to information cannot be defeated due to technology and social media, and the desire of people to choose how they are governed, he said.
A conference involving European governments and industry on how to comply with the new European Union rules on access and benefit sharing, organised by the International Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by the agriculture industry, is taking place this week in Paris. Seemingly contrary to the subject of access and sharing, the event is closed to the public and media.
Following the scandalous July leak of private information about millions of users of the secret dating website Ashley Madison, a website appeared ostensibly offering people to dialogue about the leak. And Ashley Madison used intellectual property law to defeat the new site, under a decision of the World Intellectual Property Organization domain dispute procedures announced today.
The United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office in conjunction with the IP Crime Group, made up of representatives from industry, law enforcement and government, have released official figures illustrating a decrease in the number of intellectual property crimes reported over the last year.
The alarming statistic that women hold less than 25 percent of science and technology jobs in the United States, despite making up nearly half of the workforce, brings home the extent to which women are underrepresented in this domain, says US Patent and Trademark Office Director Michelle Lee.