Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today in a report accused Google of not doing enough to stop Internet users from accessing websites repeatedly accused of copyright infringement.
Consensus remains elusive for World Intellectual Property Organization trying to prepare a text for final negotiations on an international instrument facilitating access to books and information to blind people, and some countries are growing concerned.
Delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization working to clean the text of a potential treaty facilitating access to books for visually impaired people produced a new version this morning.
South-East Asia is host to one-third of the world’s 39 million blind people. Over 20 million live in India alone. This week’s special session of the World Intellectual Property Organization aims to clean up the text of an international treaty to facilitate access to books for the blind and visually impaired community. It is thus of prime importance for India, and some there worry that issues such as commercial availability could undermine the treaty’s effectiveness.
President Obama took aim yesterday at so-called patent trolls and said that further US patent reform is needed. He also called for a continued focus on protection of IP rights, but signalled a need for balance with openness.
Hopes of the visually impaired community were rewarded in December when the World Intellectual Property Organization delegates agreed on a high level meeting anticipated to agree on a treaty providing exceptions to copyright facilitating access to books in special formats for blind and visually impaired people. However some outstanding issues remain and delegates will try to find consensus next week.
A new quarterly report on patent sales by technology shows that in 2012 the median price paid for issued US patents was US$ 221,000, while the average price paid was US$ 374,000.
Intellectual Ventures, a patent holding company, has filed a patent infringement suit against DSL providers AT&T, CenturyLink and Windstream Communications.
The United States Department of Justice today announced it has reached a settlement with Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC, which does business as Macmillan, for allegedly conspiring with Apple Inc. to raise e-book prices.
Copyright for Librarians (CFL), an online open curriculum on copyright law, has launched a new textbook aimed at providing librarians in developing and transition countries with general information concerning copyright law in addition to the aspects of the law that most affect libraries.