Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The European Copyright Society, an august group of copyright experts from across Europe, has issued a letter to new European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Günther Oettinger supporting his mandate to pursue copyright reform and calling for a unification of European copyright laws.
It is a novel way to attack online copyright infringement. Two music companies have sued an internet service provider, alleging that because the ISP failed to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers, the ISP is guilty of secondary infringement. This lawsuit troubles many copyright experts and its success is far from certain, but the music companies may achieve their aims regardless.
The population in Uganda has been growing rapidly. The country now has 35 million people. In order to provide quality services to its citizens and to improve the national competitiveness through administration innovation, the government has adopted free and open source software as the preferred mode of operation for electronic government (e-government) services and platforms.
During the recent meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee, a study was presented on exceptions and limitations to copyright for libraries and archives at the national level. The presentation spurred a full day of discussion about how to ensure libraries can continue to provide an indispensable service, and a substantive exchange with the author.
After two years of negotiations, the draft Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) stands at 17 horizontal and sector-specific proposals, negotiators told Intellectual Property Watch after the 2-5 December Geneva round of negotiations. The sector-specific annexes of the agreement, sources confirm, include one on telecommunication and one all e-commerce aspects.
Welcome to (ANEPI), the first Intellectual Property News Agency of Ecuador. The Agencia de Noticias Especializada en Propiedad Intelectual (ANEPI) publishes news, analysis, interviews, feature articles, a weekly update and more on Ecuador and the region, at http://www.anepi.ec. Articles are primarily in Spanish with some translation. Below is the list of the week's stories on ANEPI. Bienvenido a (ANEPI), La Primera Agencia de Noticias de Propiedad Intelectual del Ecuador: Síguenos http://www.anepi.ec/ANEPIEcuador
World Intellectual Property Organization members continuously work to ensure international copyright policy is as responsive and helpful as possible to global changes. One thing they don’t lack is outside opinions on what they should do.
A number of side events were organised during the 8-12 December WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). Topics addressed in these events ranged from international cooperation in film production (IPW, WIPO, 8 December 2014), to access to copyrighted works in libraries and educational institutions, to a proposed treaty on broadcasters’ rights, as well as the interface between copyright and competition.
The author of a World Intellectual Property Organization-commissioned study said this week that WIPO should take the lead on the issue of limitations and exceptions to copyright for libraries, before the debate and the solution are left to other actors.
There is an uptick in India-United States relations. US President Barack Obama will be in India in January as the chief guest at the country’s Republic Day Parade. Obama, who hosted India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington in September, will become the first US president to attend such a celebration, a display of India’s military might and ethnic diversity, as well as the first to visit India twice while in office.
The 29th Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights at the World Intellectual Property Organization is currently underway. On the agenda, inter alia, will be discussions on Limitations and Exceptions to Libraries, Archives and Educational, Teaching and Research Institutions. Against the backdrop of the success with the Marrakesh Treaty, the trajectory looks set for these further exceptions and limitations to succeed.
World Intellectual Property Organization members have been working in relative secrecy this week to decide how far to apply intellectual property rights protections on broadcasts. To guide them, nongovernmental organisations offered a range of views, from sweeping protections to scaling back the proposed treaty.
The Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been working for several years to fight “fraudulent” medicines in the global supply chain. But an alleged new draft model legislation it is developing includes intellectual property rights, an issue which has led to intensive debates in other international fora. This week, a closed-door UNODC informal expert group drafting the model legislation is meeting in Vienna.