Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Obama administration supports changes to the United States patent reform bill, said US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke in a letter sent late yesterday to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The amendments in question would allow the US…
Patent reform in America will spur high-paying job creation and economic growth, claims a new paper by senior economic officials at the US Department of Commerce and the US Patent and Trademark Office. Issued as the US Congress weighs patent…
A prepared-for-the-public version of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement under negotiation by leading economies has now been released online. The release comes after increased public and civil society outcry over a non-transparent negotiating process and fears that the treaty would lead…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch
ACTA will be public. During the eighth round of negotiations for an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in Wellington, New Zealand that ended Friday, the negotiating countries decided to give in to persistent calls for greater transparency.
Neelie Kroes, European Commission vice president and commissioner for the Digital Agenda spoke today about the future of the internet. In Valencia, Spain for a conference, she emphasised the importance of public-private partnerships, characterised innovation as “the only way to…
The US Government Accountability Office, an agency that works as a “congressional watchdog” investigating how taxpayer money is spent, has released a new report on intellectual property. The report [pdf] reviews the economic effects of counterfeiting and piracy. It finds…
The World Health Organization secretariat record of a International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT) meeting that took place 26 March are now available online. Intellectual Property Watch reported on the meeting earlier, including statements made by stakeholders (IPW, WHO, 31…
World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan today opened an expert review process on the way WHO handled the outbreak of a pandemic influenza virus last year. In her opening speech, Chan called it the “most closely watched and carefully…
When government negotiators start the next round of closed meetings on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) this week in Wellington New Zealand, they will be served a declaration by "Public ACTA", an initiative by New Zealand's country code registry InternetNZ.
Brazil’s imposition of trade countermeasures against United States products and intellectual property rights, following a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling, might be averted as the two countries are working toward a negotiated settlement.
Applause burst from the plenary chamber this week as delegates at last found, in a semicolon, the solution to a long-running and at times sharply divided multilateral negotiation.
A New York federal court ruled yesterday that patents on genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer are invalid, in the first time a court decided that patents on genes are unlawful, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).