Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The intellectual property offices of the European Union, in their commitment to harmonise practices, recently published a Common Communication establishing a common practice on the scope of protection given to black and white trademarks in the EU.
The European Council today agreed on an approach for establishing a new legal framework for protecting trade secrets.
The World Intellectual Property Organization committee on development closed last week with little to show after a week of unyielding opposing positions on every sensitive issue by several countries. Frustration was palpable as those issues were sent to the next session for further discussions, with the risk of renewed disagreement.
The World Health Organization today (24 May) adopted a one-year plan to come up with a policy on engagement with “non-state actors” – industry, nongovernmental groups, foundations and academics.
The World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property finished a weeklong meeting yesterday having not achieved the week’s goals and with harsh words from delegates calling into question the very functioning of the organisation. At the heart…
Country officials, academics and leading global health advocates this week raised one of the key concerns of this year’s World Health Assembly: innovation and access to medicines in middle-income countries. Government procurement strategies, voluntary and compulsory licensing, de-linkage models and UNITAID mechanisms were among some of the solutions put forward.
World Health Organization members this week will decide on approval of a work plan on poor quality medicines, and the WHO secretariat is hoping members will follow with financial support to carry out the plan.
Music, movie, and television companies suffered a major defeat yesterday, when the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The ruling will lead to a flood of new copyright infringement suits against these content companies, according to many experts. And content companies may not be the only losers.
The Geneva IP delegates list is updated! As a special feature for our subscribers, Intellectual Property Watch has assembled a new list of many of the leading government delegates working on intellectual property issues in Geneva.
BASEL -- Students from around the world are gathering momentum to challenge their universities’ licensing policies and research and development systems. That was one of the messages emerging from the annual meeting of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) Europe.
A recent book, “The Moral Dimensions of Intellectual Property Rights,” by Seven Ang of the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, explores the philosophical implications of moral terms included in IP rights statutes.
The increasing influence and role of internet intermediaries over the past decade has led to a debate regarding their liability in relation to online infringement of copyright and related rights. A recent study analyses legal approaches adopted across both common law and civil law countries in order to pinpoint potential worldwide trends in these liability doctrines.