Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Intellectual Property Watch Monthly Edition features top news on international IP policymaking, the latest on who is coming and going in the international IP community, news briefs and more. The November edition is now available for subscribers at: http://www.ip-watch.org/user/newsletter.
The European Commission is considering a proposal in the coming months to create a pan-European passport for collective music licensing intended to overcome stifling difficulties of 27 national collecting societies, a top official has told Intellectual Property Watch in the context of a meeting on copyright and competition.
The US Food and Drug Administration heard from myriad pharmaceutical companies, patient groups, and other stakeholders last week as the agency considers how to create an abbreviated pathway to bring more biologic drugs to market.
World Intellectual Property Organization members this week took early steps toward the possibility of a treaty to facilitate the registration of industrial designs, and urged WIPO to continue addressing potential new challenges to trademarks from the impending expansion of domain names on the internet.
Disagreement over the mandate of a newly-formed World Intellectual Property Organization committee resulted in a vote to suspend the meeting with no conclusions last Friday evening.
Another grace period has been given to negotiators trying feverishly to find agreement this week in Nagoya, Japan on an international instrument protecting countries against unlawful appropriation of their genetic resources and ensuring the fair sharing of benefits arising from the use of those resources. The delegates are to present their text Wednesday to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting so that it can be approved by ministers.
Intellectual property and competition policy are sometimes seen as counterweights, but an efficient patent system and effective competition policy are ultimately complementary in nature, speakers said at an event today at the World Intellectual Property Organization.
In a ruling expected to rock Europe’s controversial copyright levy system, the European Court of Justice held on 20 October that governments may impose fees on digital reproduction equipment to compensate rights holders only when the devices are likely to be used for private copying.
Copyright law is not always a barrier to access to knowledge, but lack of adequate or predicable copyright enforcement in developing countries can prevent the evolution of their own local creative industries, said several representatives from such industries yesterday.
United States Attorney General Eric Holder today called on other governments to join in intensifying the fight against intellectual property infringement, on the theme that, “intellectual property crimes are not victimless.” But his law enforcement argument may need finessing to reach all stakeholders.