Original news and analysis on international IP policy
It was a major legal battle between copyright owners and online businesses. Then, on 5 April, online businesses won. Mostly. The US appellate court ruling in Viacom International, Inc. v. YouTube, Inc. basically upheld the legal protection that a key US statute grants to online firms. However, the ruling also opened several holes in that protection.
The United States has historically demonstrated little interest for geographical indications but recent developments seem to indicate that actors are taking stands on the issue.
A copy of a key judgment by the High Court of Kenya last week that found a national anti-counterfeiting law was overly broad and might interfere with access to generic medicines is now available on Intellectual Property Watch.
The High Court of Kenya yesterday ruled that the country's 2008 Anti-Counterfeit Act was too broad and could interfere with the flow of legal generic medicines to patients, leading the UNAIDS organisation to issue a statement praising the decision. It also said intellectual property rights are not more important than life and health, according to UNAIDS.
It’s unclear if the US Supreme Court wants to address yet another controversial issue in patent law, but on 2 April, the court took a small step in that direction. That’s when the court formally asked the US Justice Department to opine on whether the high court should grant certiorari in Bowman v. Monsanto Co.
Today, a US appellate court released its decision in a key case in which rights holders asserted that online video site YouTube should be liable for copyright infringing content appearing on its site. According to a preliminary reading, the appeals court reversed the earlier decision, signalling that YouTube, owned by Google, could have known about infringing content and therefore may not fit under the safe harbor clause of the US Digital Millenniumn Copyright Act limiting the liability of online service providers.
The United States is known for taking an unusually expansive approach towards patentable subject matter. Compared with Western Europe, for instance, the US has been far readier to grant patents on business methods, medical diagnostic processes, and human genes.
A new treaty protocol against illicit trade in tobacco products struck today at the World Health Organization saw a late-stage decision to strip out references to “counterfeit” products from the text, according to sources.
The Indian Supreme Court today postponed hearing the high-profile case involving Swiss pharmaceutical producer Novartis' challenge of India's patent law until July, according to sources.
The United States Supreme Court yesterday threw out a high-profile case that had allowed a private company's patents on two human genes associated with cancer.
On 20 March, the US Supreme Court cut back on the types of inventions that can be patented in America. The court held in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Labs., Inc. that one cannot patent an invention which merely applies known technology to natural phenomena.
PARIS - A meeting of IP professionals held in Paris last week reaffirmed the importance of intellectual property and its protection to the private sector. Meanwhile, panellists at the event argued that green technologies should not benefit from a special regime. They also hailed the new America Invents Act as facilitating patent applications in the United States.