Original news and analysis on international IP policy
A list of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the much-disputed anti-piracy legislation before the United States Congress has been published by CNET News. It also reported that some 4.5 million people signed the petition on Google during the blackout protest yesterday.
Among Denmark's many priorities for its six-month presidency of the European Union which started this month are advancing intellectual property rights, international trade, research and innovation. IP issues include a unitary EU patent, trademark rules modernisation, and orphan works legislation.
This year could bring major changes in US intellectual property law. Congress and the nation’s courts will be confronting a variety of issues that have broad ramifications for copyrights, trademarks and patents. Here are some of the top developments to watch in 2012.
A new report from the United States Department of Commerce on competitiveness and innovation details the US need to boost innovation in order to compete globally and grow the economy. But while it stresses the need for strong intellectual property rights enforcement to create high-priced monopolies as an incentive for innovation, it also acknowledges that access to inexpensive technology and ideas is key to innovation and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it shows that the rise in IP rights in recent years has been accompanied by a drop in innovation.
The dates have been set for this year's high-level negotiation for a treaty on audiovisual performances at the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The most-read Intellectual Property Watch stories of 2011 demonstrated the versatility and range of our readers from around the globe, from an intense focus on international and national copyright issues to bilateral and plurilateral free trade agreements, to issues in India and Brazil, patent laws, patents in agriculture, scientific knowledge, and of course, policies emerging in Geneva at the World Intellectual Property Organization, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization and elsewhere at the multilateral level. Most of all, they tell the story of the year gone by, with clear signals of what's to come in 2012.
With a recent decision by the Agriculture and Fishery Council of the European Union, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) seems to have made a big leap forward. And with recent breakthroughs in other countries, ACTA’s final hurdle may be in the European parliaments.
The United States Trade Representative’s office today released its second report in a year on markets it has labeled “notorious” based on unofficial comments it has received. The report identifies physical and internet-based marketplaces around the world that may be hotbeds for the sale of intellectual property infringing goods.
WASHINGTON, DC - American intellectual property attachés serving abroad have helped propel global discussions on intellectual property rights and have helped protect inventors’ rights amidst a “global flat economy,” but enforcement remains a difficult challenge in many parts of the world, attachés said at a recent event gathering them back home. The officials highlighted strategies for the coming year in the top emerging economies.
Despite the low-key role of intellectual property rights issues at this week’s World Trade Organization ministerial, there is plenty to think about for the IP community.