Category Information and Communications Technology/ Broadcasting

Rights, Content Issues May Complicate Internet Domain Name Expansion

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch LISBON – The rejection of the .xxx top-level domain by the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) last week in Lisbon was a major highlight of the meeting…

Google’s Expanded Functions Spark More Lawsuits and Debate

By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch
Google is turning the intellectual property world on its head as it battles challenges to its search, book publishing and online video activities. The outcome of the debate over whether any are compatible with copyright law is by no means certain, legal experts said this week.

Yet Google doesn't think it is shaking up copyright law, said Rachel Whetstone, director of European corporate communications and public affairs.

Seminar Addresses Liability, Filtering Of User-Posted Online Content

By John T. Aquino for Intellectual Property Watch
WASHINGTON, DC - "What goes up on the Internet must come down because of copyright infringement until it goes up again," according to James DeLong, moderator of a 16 March seminar in Washington, DC. The seminar heard views on liability, filtering and copyrights related to user-generated content online, and offered a voice to Viacom to explain its legal attack on Google's popular video upload site YouTube.

Sharp Increase In Internet Domain Name Disputes Last Year, WIPO Says

By Stephen Flug for Intellectual Property Watch The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said there was a 25 percent increase in “cybersquatting” complaints – the registering and use of domain names to profit from another party’s trademark – last year…

WIPO Committee Approves Proposals For Development Agenda

By William New Two-and-a-half years after the introduction of proposals to make the World Intellectual Property Organization more favourable to developing countries, a preliminary agreement has been reached. “What we got was meaningful and balanced,” a Brazilian official said afterward.…

Mobile Phone Cases Test Royalties’ Link To Patent Quality

By Tatum Anderson for Intellectual Property Watch
When should a patent be considered higher quality? Qualcomm, the United States mobile technology firm at the heart of countless patent infringement court cases, has justified the royalties it charges on mobile phone patents in a paper released earlier this month.

Patent Debates Continue Worldwide In 2007

By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen and William New
Patents are bound to be another hot issue this year. But although many parties are pushing for changes in this area - from global patent harmonisation and proposals for better patent protection of biodiversity and traditional knowledge, to ways to control soaring patent filings, to national reform of patent laws - actual implementation of these changes may be harder to obtain.

Internet Governance Forum: Is It More Than Talk?

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Multi-stakeholder “dynamic coalitions” of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) are pushing to have privacy, intellectual property, open standards and freedom of expression on the agenda of the second meeting in Rio de…