Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Por Monika Ermert para Intellectual Property Watch RÍO DE JANEIRO- El de las cuestiones relacionadas con la propiedad intelectual fue un tema que los gobiernos evitaron tocar durante la Cumbre Mundial sobre la Sociedad de la Información en 2003 y…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch RIO DE JANEIRO – Intellectual property-related issues were a topic avoided by governments during the 2003-2005 World Summit on the Information Society, which gave way to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). But at…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch
Makers and distributors of digital storage products and audiovisual media last week urged France's highest administrative court to kill private copy levies on technologies for transferring data such as USB keys, external hard disks and memory cards.
The challenges, filed 9 November in the Conseil d'Etat by e-merchant Rue du Commerce and the Syndicat des Industries de Mat�riels Audiovisuels Electroniques (SIMAVELEC), contend that the lack of harmonised levies among European Union countries violates EU law and hurts online sellers.
The legal action came one day after the European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers (GESAC) argued that non-payment of levies should be made a criminal offence.
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch RIO DE JANEIRO – The debate over whether the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) should grow beyond its no-decisions, dialogue-only capacity was under consideration from the opening of the meeting here Monday. While a…
By William New The World Intellectual Property Organization enforcement committee last week heard from a series of intellectual property rights enforcers and others before attempting unsuccessfully to agree on the future work and moving to consultations till February. Meanwhile, separate…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch
A US federal court in Virginia has temporarily blocked the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) from implementing controversial new rules governing patent application continuations. The rules, set to come into effect on 1 November, sparked strong opposition from many patent attorneys who argued that capping the number of patent claims and continuing applications would harm inventors seeking to protect intellectual property rights in the fast-moving high-technology sector (IPW, Patent Policy, 10 September 2007).
Separately, Portugal, which holds the EU presidency, floated a revised proposal for a European patent litigation system. The draft, although seen by critics as much improved over earlier versions, leaves several key issues unresolved, said Kevin Mooney, a UK attorney with Simmons & Simmons and president of the European Patent Lawyers Association (EPLAW).
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Intellectual property and computer law barrister Peter Dengate-Thrush has been elected as new Chairman of the Board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The former chairman of InternetNZ, the…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch The upcoming second Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro will have a very broad agenda with over thirty workshops, 22 best practice forums and 10 meetings of dynamic coalitions specialising in key…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Even the “father of the Internet” could not find a solution to the ongoing fight over the so-called Whois database, which allow checks on who has registered Internet domain names. When Vinton Cerf…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch
The European system for licensing copyrighted music is in "huge confusion" following the rejection by content users and smaller collecting societies of a proposed model contract for collective management of music on cable, satellite and the Internet, Thierry Desurmont, vice president of the board of France's Societe des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique, said this week.
Desurmont spoke along with others at a 22 October Chatham House/International Institute of Communications conference on trends in global communications in London.
By Bruce Gain for Intellectual Property Watch
The European Commission's recent approval of a €120-million state aid package granted to a German research project called Theseus for the development of "Web 3.0" drew a lot of media attention. However, the grant's sum is but a fraction of the R&D budgets of the world's leading consumer Internet technology firms.
According to the project's spokesman, Thomas Huber, the project's aim is nothing less than "fundamentally transforming the existing Internet." A reinvention of the Internet and the intellectual property rights associated with such a feat would require billion-dollar annual research and development budgets, according to Rob Enderle, president and founder of the California-based Enderle Group analyst firm.
OTTAWA – The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris-based club of 30 of the world’s largest economies, is moving fast to keep up with the newest trend on the Internet: user-generated content. Referred to generally as ‘Web 2.0’,…