Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The World Trade Organization today announced that the three facilitators charged with consulting WTO members have recommended Brazilian Amb. Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo become its next director general.
Internet users who merely read or view copyright-protected webpages enjoy a temporary copying exception under European Union and United Kingdom law and do not need permission from rights holders, the UK Supreme Court said in a 17 April ruling.
Three media standards bodies have formed a Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM) to define a strategy to develop a packet-based network infrastructure for the professional media industry.
Sangeeta Shashikant writes: "Developed countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, have offered a poor and impractical deal of an incredibly short extension of 5 years with restrictive conditions to least developed countries that are entitled to be exempted from implementing the WTO TRIPS Agreement. Particularly problematic is their demand that the LDCs agree to a 'no-roll-back' clause, a TRIPS plus condition that will prevent LDCs from rolling back (i.e. providing a reduced degree of IP protection) their current laws, even if they adversely impact their development concerns."
Cuba has joined several other World Trade Organization members in filing a dispute settlement case against Australia over its new rules requiring tobacco products to be sold in plain packages. The measure was instituted this year as a means of reducing use of tobacco products.
Just days after the celebration of 20 years of an open WorldWideWeb, more than two dozen advocacy group are circulating a petition to prevent the World Wide Web Consortium from accepting a proposal to allow restrictive new copyright measures on the key technology for accessing the internet.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has launched an intellectual property portal to serve as a hub for ASEAN on IP-related issues.
Twenty years ago the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) put its WorldWideWeb technology in the public domain.
| LES (USA & Canada) 2013 Spring Meeting IP Matters In Every Deal May 14-16 | Seattle, WA |
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The International Trade Committee (INTA) of the European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution welcoming negotiations for a Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States (23 in favor, five against, one abstention). While most of the 198 amendments to the report of the rapporteur, the INTA Committee Chair Vital Moreira (Socialists and Democrats Group) were rejected by the majority, an amendment asking for the "exclusion of the cultural and audiovisual services, including those provided online" in the negotiation mandate was adopted.