Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Members of the World Intellectual Property Organization have agreed to hold highest level negotiations on a treaty to protect audiovisual performers’ rights in the summer of 2012 in Beijing, China.
The Philippines Justice Secretary has issued an opinion that an agency cannot issue an injunction against an alleged counterfeiter as the complainant must be an actual party with an interest in the case.
European efforts to resolve three vexing intellectual property issues - copyright licensing, private copying levies and a unified system for granting and litigating patents - are gaining pace in the public and private sectors and could bear fruit next year.
In what is seen by many as a landmark decision, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg on Thursday ruled that an injunction obliging an internet service provider to install a filtering system to prevent peer-to-peer copyright violations on its network would violate European law.
The World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee today agreed on "clusters" of topics under which they will discuss topics related to limitations and exceptions to copyright for libraries and archives, with an eye toward a possible instrument in the future. And this evening, a special meeting of ambassadors was held with the World Blind Union and the International Publishers Association, aimed at bridging differences on a separate but related treaty proposal on limitations and exceptions for print-disabled readers.
Officials from around the world have gathered for the next two weeks at the World Intellectual Property Organization in hopes of resolving the fate of several longstanding copyright policies under debate. The hope of many is that by the end of the copyright committee meeting starting yesterday, WIPO members will be on track to treaties or instruments on audiovisual performances, limitations and exceptions for print-disabled readers and for libraries and archives, and on broadcasters’ rights. And serious negotiations have already begun.
Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, has issued a call for new thinking beyond old business models as a way to incentivize creativity in Europe.
With protests against draft US legislation like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act ongoing and the European Parliament voting on 17 November for a resolution to request that the United States should be “refraining from unilateral measures to revoke IP addresses or domain names,” politicians are talking a lot about technology for the internet domain name system. But at the same time, engineers are getting more political and are intensively discussing technology providing the tools for blocking - by governments and private parties.
An international outcry from open internet proponents has emerged over draft US legislation, HR 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), on the eve of a hearing on the bill. International critics say the bill would put the United States on the same ground as China with regards to internet filtering, undermining the US argument for internet freedom.
The eighth session of the World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) opened this week with the close of its seventh session. Committee coordinators were still gathered in negotiations as the eighth session was due to begin on 14 November, hammering out a compromise on proposed meetings on South-South cooperation among developing countries.
Thirty-three research institutions, associations and foundations in North America last week signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, committing to support open access research in the future. The signing brings the total signers to nearly 300, including many of the top research institutions in the world.
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has set up a fund for donations to support core activities after the United States withheld its dues equalling nearly a quarter of UNESCO's budget. Already the agency has begun cutting programmes in developing countries, it said.