Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has tasked an expert group on intellectual property rights with coming up with ways to update ITU patent policy with an eye toward clarifying litigation involving “standards-essential patents.”
Public interest groups will join government officials, academics, attorneys, industry representatives and others in Toronto, Canada, on Friday, 12 October alongside the meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to discuss ICANN's involvement in internet governance issues such as security and freedom online.
Internet firms continue to drive global economic growth and job increases in the information technology sector, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found in a new report.
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) and Google Inc. have reached a settlement in a seven-year copyright dispute involving the Google Library Project, allowing the inclusion of copyrighted digital works.
The Union Cabinet of India has approved ratification of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing, a measure that provides a tool against biopiracy. The 4 October action comes on the eve of the 11th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
The majority of member states of the 185-strong World Intellectual Property Organization have thrown their support for the fast-tracked negotiation of a new treaty or other instrument that sets limitations and exceptions to copyright for the benefit of the visually-impaired and those with print disabilities
Member governments of the World Intellectual Property Organization yesterday approved all but one application for international non-governmental observer status at the UN agency: Pirate Parties International. This is likely to lead to a discussion of who can be an observer, sources say.
The Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Physics (CERN) has collaborated with funding agencies and libraries of 29 countries to make freely available access to otherwise expensive scientific articles in the field of particle physics.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors without Borders) today announced the launch of the “Patent Opposition Database,” an online resource to help patient groups or others to oppose wrongful patent applications as a way to ensure access remains open for affordable generic drugs.
The nine countries asked by a United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur to respond to a complaint over the alleged secret and bureaucratic negotiations for the draft Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement either failed to respond or defended the backdoor talks, according to the advocacy group Knowledge Ecology International (KEI).
A new industry analysis highlights the continued decline in print advertising revenues, but offers a glimpse of possibilities for the recovery of the industry in light of the various technology-driven changes and developments in the global media market. New laws or new exceptions to copyright laws, however, are not seen as ways to save the print industry, at least in Europe, according to the report.
World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Francis Gurry has issued a call for new efforts to ensure copyright remains viable and to win the hearts and minds of the public toward intellectual property rights. The comments came in a broader context of maintaining the relevance of the organisation on the eve of the annual WIPO General Assembly.