Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Negotiations for a treaty providing protections for broadcasting organisations have been long and difficult at the World Intellectual Property Organization. In the corridors of WIPO, questions to a number of delegates are often answered with a puzzled look and what seems to be little understanding of technical issues. Intellectual Property Watch recently tried to untangle some of the technicalities of the discussions.
Health advocacy groups called on the European Commission yesterday to change the way it funds research and development for new medicines so that innovations can serve a larger public.
The European Parliament Legal Committee this week did not bother to further discuss the ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty on copyright exceptions for print disabled persons. Instead, Rapporteur Max Andersson declared that he favoured putting the file to a vote right away. Andersson told Intellectual Property Watch that the parliament would adopt the report in March or latest April.
President Trump and members of his administration have rightly talked about the need to be tougher on trade enforcement, including promising to take a closer look at existing trade agreements to see whether they should be revoked, renegotiated, or more strictly enforced. A candidate ripe for review is Colombia, and in particular, its ongoing failure to implement intellectual property provisions under the U.S. Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA), Nigel Corey writes.
Copyright, copyright and more copyright tops Europe's intellectual property agenda for 2017. With the EU institutions mulling major reforms to copyright laws, publishers are pushing for a right to bar unauthorised copying or reuse of their content for commercial purposes, audiovisual authors for fair remuneration for use of their works on platforms like YouTube. The European Commission will begin reviewing the enforcement of IP rights as well as delving further into issues related to liability of platforms for infringement. But there are many patent issues too, including plant variety protection, patent incentives, and the ongoing unitary patent court.
Coolness alert! The Free Software Foundation has announced an updated list of high priority projects on a global scale. Top priorities now include a free software phone operating system, clouds, hardware, voice and video chat, inclusiveness, security and internationalisation of…
Artificial intelligence has succeeded the Internet of Things or the earlier cloud mania as buzzword number one at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum that started today (17 January) in Davos, Switzerland. While ethical questions surrounding the intelligent machines are discussed at length and the question for regulatory steps considered, answers of who will own the knowledge created by machines or intelligent bots vary.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- “Fair use” was at the heart of discussions between intellectual property stakeholders at a recent workshop called to discuss the revised draft copyright amendment bill of South Africa.
European lawmakers should boost protections for researchers and educators in the European Commission proposal for a directive on copyright in the digital single market, five research organisations said today. Among other things, lawmakers and policymakers must rethink the provisions on text and data mining as well as the exception for use of works in digital and cross-border teaching, they said.
The book Antitrust Issues in Intellectual Property Law, edited by Bradford Lyerla and authored by several lawyers, is about the intersection of IP law and antitrust law and collects case law from 2015 and 20152016??, dealing with the issue.