Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Switzerland is considering the “modernisation” of its copyright law to adapt the rights and obligations of various stakeholders to the “realities” of the internet. The country’s generous exception on private use of downloaded material appears to be preserved in the proposed change but internet service providers might feel the pinch.
A new United Kingdom copyright exception for private copying cleared Parliament on 29 July and will become law in October. The change brought cheers from high-tech and digital rights groups. UK Music, however, said the new regulation will hurt creators and that it is considering legal action.
The Polish Parliament is currently finalising work on a bill designed to make using anti-plagiarism software compulsory for Polish higher education institutions (HEIs). With the new law, universities are to become obliged to check all Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. theses to detect acts of plagiarism. However, local observers doubt whether the bill will provide Polish HEIs with sufficient means to counter this widespread problem and protect intellectual property.
With an increase in the number of entrepreneur artisans in Uganda, a need to protect and benefit from the artisan works has emerged in the country. There is a growing trend in rights management, especially in the fields of musical works, film and art.
The European Commission white paper on its ongoing copyright reform will not be available until early fall, a Commission source said this week. Officials had previously indicated that the paper might be published this month.
The Takedown Project is a recent initiative bringing the research community together to explore how the notice-and-takedown procedure in cases of alleged online copyright infringement are handled by internet service providers around the world. The project aims to create greater transparency in order to improve the quality of this global regulatory system.
Since that fateful night in 1998 when former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms slipped a provision on behalf of US rum-maker Bacardi into an appropriations bill blocking a Cuban-French company from using the Havana Club trademark in the US, it was expected the provision would eventually be overturned.
Microsoft, a strong advocate of intellectual property protection, has launched an online IP portal in Kenya with the aim of helping innovators better understand different means of protecting their software and reap the economic benefits of their innovations. The initiative is planned to spread to other African countries.
United Nations experts are underlining the importance of using the term “indigenous peoples” in a UN draft set of sustainable development goals from which they say the term has been deleted.
An Indian pharmaceutical industry group has challenged the United States Trade Representative’s assessment of India’s intellectual property protection regime and suggested that India received more severe treatment than other countries solely on the basis of treatment of patented pharmaceuticals that it says is allowed under international rules.
A joint United Nations commission on food safety this week has set several new standards on level of lead, arsenic and drugs appearing in food.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today released a report criticising government mass surveillance, including the coercion of companies to release individuals’ information without their knowledge or consent. This activity is “severely hindering” accountability in human rights violations, and that governments must prove the legality of their actions, she said.