Original news and analysis on international IP policy
On 11 April 2014, the Spanish Council of Ministers approved a draft law reforming the current Spanish Patent Law of 1986. The reform aims to reconcile the regulation with the international framework, strengthen the Spanish patent system and make it easier and faster to obtain solid patent titles in Spain. It contains a few notable changes.
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 new book argues that the conventional business approach to increasing control over employees and the talents they carry out actually stifles their creativity and inventiveness.
A World Intellectual Property Organization Extraordinary General Assembly was convened this week to confirm the re-election of Francis Gurry as director general, but also to decide on convening a treaty negotiation this year to finish a procedural treaty on industrial designs. No consensus was found on the design treaty, leaving the decision to be deferred to the General Assembly in September.
Today at the World Intellectual Property Organization, Ecuador signed the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled, which is administered by WIPO.
Digitisation of copyrighted works is in growing demand, and books are increasingly being made widely available in digital form. Two forms of works however - orphan and out-of-commerce works - are in danger of missing out, said speakers at a recent World Intellectual Property Organization event, and there is a risk of forever losing an important part of our cultural heritage embedded in these works. Another panel, meanwhile, illustrated that laws on copyright and licensing also present obstacles to cross-border use of digitised works by universities, libraries and archives.
Last week, the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee ended without agreement on the conclusions of the meeting or its future work, to the dismay of librarians and archivists associations. During the week, numerous representatives of these communities gave vigorous accounts of why a treaty is vital to grant them exceptions to copyright.
The potential for big data to yield better outcomes in all aspects of health is tremendous, and tapping into it has only just begun, said speakers at a recent panel in Geneva.
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), an enigma organisation to some, has published a list of answers to frequently asked questions on its website.
World Intellectual Property Organization delegates sitting on the copyright committee had to declare defeat late into the night yesterday as they could not agree on the conclusions of the meeting or its future work. The efforts by developing countries to craft a treaty providing copyright exceptions for libraries and archives met with stonewalled resistance by some developed countries, in particular the European Union.
The World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee this week has sunk its teeth into the issue of exceptions and limitations to copyright for libraries and archives. Some countries are pushing for a treaty to establish such exceptions while others find that the existing copyright system provides for it.