Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Georg Greve
Interconnectivity, commoditisation and increased reuse and recombination are key trends within the maturing information and communication technologies (ICT) industry that drive innovation and development. Harnessing the innovative and economic potential of the ICT sector depends on a variety of factors, including open innovation models, such as free software.
The number and intensity of debates over the role of intellectual property rights in public health is set to increase in 2009.
New leadership and new mandates for key intergovernmental organisations implemented last year have created opportunity for change. And while old debates over the balance between IP rights and access to health products are not going away, this year will see more exploration at the intergovernmental level of different systems to stimulate innovation.
Key players in the biotechnology industry are leading an effort to obtain global approval processes for generic biological medicines, which experts say could provide cheaper access to costly but widely prescribed and promising treatments.
French legislators are putting the final touches on controversial legislation that will likely lead to the most governmentally-proactive law intended to curb illegal file sharing among any other European Union member state.
The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) has finished a draft intellectual property law that would help pave the way for fuller membership in the Geneva institutions, according to a local news source from the country. The unconfirmed article says EIPO…
This year could be a transitional one for global internet governance policy, as the internet’s technical oversight body may finally lose its ties to the United States, the next generation internet comes into its own, the UN Internet Governance Forum will be reviewed, and the world could see the rapid spread of new internet domains.
The Year Ahead: Copyright has taken centre stage again this year as the battle over internet service provider (ISP) responsibility for digital piracy intensifies and spreads around the world. 2009 will also feature growing global pressure for a more harmonised system of copyright limitations and exceptions, and continuing controversy over the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
James Boyle is a leading thinker on copyright and knowledge access, and is author of a new book called The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind (available at thepublicdomain.org or here as a PDF).
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch CANNES – Giving licences to digital music providers has been on top of the agenda of the world’s largest music fair, Midem, and its technology forum Midemnet for about a decade now. But…
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch BRUSSELS – Strong opposition is being voiced by members of the European Parliament over plans to extend the copyright protection applying to sound recordings from 50 to 95 years. Both left and right-leaning…