Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By William New A proposed treaty to strengthen rights for broadcasters faces a critical test next week at the World Intellectual Property Organization. Government negotiators are under pressure to finish preliminary work on a draft treaty before the 25 September…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch The United States government does not want to retain “all [its] historic roles” in the technical oversight of the Internet domain name system (DNS), a senior Bush administration official said this week. But…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch The United Kingdom independent music sector wants content distributors to pay creators for transmitting their works over the Internet, mobile phones and other devices. At a 12 July London roundtable headed by the…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Should everybody who registers an Internet domain name be forced to publish his private address, email address and phone number on the Internet? A storm broke out over the question of the so-called…
Debates over the intellectual property system, access to knowledge, and free and open source software are raging worldwide, but perhaps nowhere so much as in Brazil. And in that country, one forum for debate and analysis that stands out is…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch The French Senate on 10 May approved legislation aimed at aligning the country’s intellectual property law with the European Union Copyright Directive. The Senate package differs in several key respects from the one…
Negotiators at the World Intellectual Property Organization today scheduled another meeting on a proposed broadcasters’ rights treaty before deciding whether to recommend a full negotiation. They also took the significant step of putting an unpopular proposal to include webcasting in…
On the second day of a weeklong meeting at World Intellectual Property Organization on copyright issues, there is little indication so far whether member governments will recommend the full negotiation of a treaty boosting the protection of broadcasts, according to…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch A German scientist who would like to read an online book owned by another department of his university soon may have to travel to the department and read it on site instead if…
BRUSSELS – A consumer-led conference on intellectual property touched on a wide range of issues during its second day, from whether the $9 physical production costs of CDs are saved through digital distribution, to what would be an ideal reform…