Original news and analysis on international IP policy
India and the European Union announced a written agreement yesterday that puts more conditions on EU customs authorities before they can stop shipments of generic pharmaceuticals passing through Europe. No longer is the existence of an EU patent on passing generics sufficient cause to stop shipments. The agreement suspends a World Trade Organization dispute started by India last year.
The UN World Intellectual Property Organization yesterday invited a panel of international film producers and star Spanish actor Javier Bardem to sing the praise of an international treaty to help the audiovisual industry address the problem of unauthorised downloads of content that is a hallmark of the digital age.
The official responsible for the staid World Intellectual Property Organization internet domain dispute resolution procedures has again come out strongly against efforts by another international body to reform those dispute procedures.
The European Commission today presented its annual report on customs activities related to intellectual property rights (IPR) infringing goods, finding sharp increases in some areas and leading to calls for new enforcement measures.
India has at least seven diverse intellectual property (IP) legislations related to protection already in place. Its focus should therefore arguably be directed - along the lines of many other IP jurisdictions - on more stringent enforcement modus operandi of the IP rights. Is there scope for introducing yet another IP legislation – the utility model protection law - in the Indian IP landscape and if so, what should be its scope and implication, asks Swarup Kumar.
The role and responsibility of internet intermediaries in the protection of copyright is under debate in several policy fora and often brings up issues such as privacy, access to knowledge, and freedom of expression. A panel was organised last week at the World Intellectual Property Organization to explore the viewpoints of several but not all stakeholders on this issue.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) today published a communiqué on principles for internet policy-making slanted toward intellectual property enforcement after fending off efforts by public interest groups to soften some of its edges.
A high-level meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is expected to pass a set of "principles on internet policymaking" tomorrow. But over 80 non-governmental groups have announced they will not sign on to the communiqué.
For the past ten years, the United States Supreme Court has steadily chipped away at patent rights. But this term, the court abruptly reversed direction. In two weeks, the high court issued rulings in three patent cases, and in every one upheld the legal rights of inventors. It is unclear, however, how big a win this really was for patent rights.
The Mexican Senate this week approved a resolution rejecting the secretly negotiated Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, citing absence of inclusion in the negotiations, potential negative impact on internet users' access to knowledge, freedom of expression and other concerns.