Original news and analysis on international IP policy
An informal meeting of World Trade Organization members on a long-discussed register on geographical indications of wines and spirits today showed that member states were committed but not yet inclined to delve into the issues until they have a clearer picture of other sensitive topics of the Doha Round.
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.
After two difficult meetings, the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee is meeting this week with the hope of getting closer to a treaty protecting broadcasting organisations, although questions remain on scope and level of protection. The committee is also expected to find ways to work on exceptions and limitations to copyrights for libraries, archives, education and research, as developed countries oppose normative work, and developing countries want international instruments.
An informal meeting is scheduled to take place on 12 December at the World Trade Organization on a multilateral register for geographical indications of wines and spirits. The meeting is expected to discuss how to move the work in the negotiations, and how to reflect it in the post-Bali work programme, according to a source.
As a result of the America Invents Act enacted three years ago, the United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) now handles inter partes reviews (IPR)—a new trial proceeding used to challenge the validity of patent claims based on patents and printed publications. Recently, the PTAB has caused a split concerning the proper scope of the IPR joinder provision, which grants the PTAB discretion to join a “party” to a previously-instituted IPR. In the past, the PTAB interpreted the term “party” expansively to include petitioners for whom it had already instituted an IPR. Petitioners were quick to jump on this loophole, and have since sought to raise new arguments in an instituted IPR by filing a subsequent petition and seeking joinder with the in-progress proceeding.
A recent paper proposes that countries use the access and benefit-sharing mechanism of the Nagoya Protocol to ensure conservation action and effective implementation of the protocol.
The Association of European Performers’ Organisations (AEPO-ARTIS) has released a study showing that EU legislation does not provide adequate protection to performers for the legal exploitation of their performances on the internet.
China has set up an administrative office called the Shanghai City Pudong New Area Intellectual Property Office, integrating patent, trademark and copyright administration in the Pudong New Area in Shanghai city.
Alberto Bichi is secretary-general of the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI), based in Brussels. In an interview with Intellectual Property Watch’s Catherine Saez, he describes FESI's mission, the views of the industry on the importance of intellectual property protection, and the growing issue of counterfeiting. He also talked about the industry's concern over the current European Union customs regulation on goods in transit, which, according to him is negatively impacting the sector.
"Nearly one-third of all Silicon Valley start-ups have an Indian-American co-founder," United States Trade Representative Michael Froman said in remarks on India today. The country of India is also innovating, but it must do more to have and enforce a world-class intellectual property rights regime, he said.
For performers and record labels in the United States, it is terrific news. They possess previously unrecognised rights in audio recordings, according to three recent court rulings. But not everyone is pleased about this. The decisions not only upend 75 years of US copyright law, they create big problems for broadcasters, webcasters and many other internet firms, all of whom now face hefty liability for copyright infringement.