Original news and analysis on international IP policy
All the experts agree: US copyright law doesn’t apply outside US borders. But try telling that to Kim Dotcom, Aubrey Canning, or the growing number of other foreigners whose activities outside the United States have resulted in sanctions under US copyright law.
Ukraine yesterday filed a World Trade Organization dispute settlement case against Australia for its 2011 law requiring plain packaging on tobacco in an effort to address the severe public health problem related to its use. The case could represent an important measure of the power of trade interests versus public health decisions by governments.
In a move welcomed by many in the international community, India has granted an application, its first, from a homegrown generic drug maker to manufacture and sell a patented cancer drug under a compulsory licence.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) this week held a public hearing on a German case involving software companies Oracle and UsedSoft, the second step to a ruling that could potentially set new rules for buying and downloading software on the internet.
A collegium of scientists, philosophers and former heads of state launched an appeal yesterday in Geneva for world governance they called "Global Solidarity, Global Responsibility."
The District Court of Berlin, Germany, yesterday ruled that user rights were violated by several parts of social media site Facebook's general terms and conditions and by its "friendfinder" feature. With regard to copyright law, the automatic worldwide exploitation right granted by users clicking off the terms and conditions was invalid, the court ruled.
As the Novartis Glivec patent case in India reaches the final phase of a long-running legal battle, there’s one point on which both the Swiss pharmaceutical company and its critics agree: the significance of this case goes far beyond the protection of a single medication.
It was obviously a moment of some embarrassment for the US Department of Commerce and the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
The European Commission has issued a formal request to Italy to remove linkage between patents and generic medicines authorisation that it says is causing delays in generics reaching the market.
In the midst of the global flare-up over draft anti-piracy legislation in the US Congress this week, several heavy-hitting actions were taken in the United States against websites said to be supporting unauthorised content.
"Idea Rights: A Guide to Intellectual Property" is a new book that looks at the major statutes and cases in intellectual property law with experienced, yet fresh, eyes.
The United States Supreme Court today ruled on one of the top intellectual property legal cases expected this year. The case questioned whether the US Congress acted constitutionally when it restored copyright to millions of foreign works that had been in the public domain in the US. And it affirmed Congress' actions, allowing the US to avoid questions of compliance with its international obligations.