Original news and analysis on international IP policy
World Intellectual Property Organization members this week are discussing potential new policies on patent law related to patent quality, patents and health, and exceptions and limitations to patents.
Intellectual property rights holders, access to knowledge proponents, presumably online scam artists, and possibly governments and international organisations interested in internet governance heard the call of the introduction this week of the “Protect IP Act” in the US Senate. The bill is aimed at strengthening US law enforcement’s ability to stop international websites offering counterfeit goods or unauthorised copyrighted content.
Government policymakers are stalling on trade liberalization while erecting new nontransparent trade barriers, writes Frederick Abbott.
The Public Patent Foundation filed suit yesterday against Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified seeds with farmers asking to be protected against the biotechnology giant’s potential lawsuits in case of accidental contamination from plants grown with its seeds.
Google’s efforts to resolve questions of copyright infringement in its digital library project did not yield the hoped-for result as a district court judge yesterday rejected the agreement. But the judge left open the possibility that the parties could come back again with revisions.
A list of briefs were filed Friday in support of maintaining the high standard in the United States for questioning the validity of patent. The decision of the Supreme Court expected in the coming months could have a major impact on patent law.
US software-maker Microsoft today filed lawsuits for patent infringement against bookseller Barnes & Noble and its makers of Android-based electronic book reader and tablet devices.
Companies doing business in the United States have, for the past 15 months, found themselves in the cross-hairs. Bayer, Nike, L’Oreal, Sony, Wal-Mart, Novo Nordisk and hundreds of other firms have been sued for making or selling products displaying incorrect or expired patent numbers. And the liability for such false patent marking can be astronomical, with a defendant potentially facing fines of billions or even trillions of dollars.
The bill to reform United States patent law recently passed by the Senate purports to bring US law closer to laws of other major patent-filing nations. But how close would it come?
The traditional copyright system’s balance for encouraging yet controlling access to copyrighted works in order to extract value for them has met with a destructive force in the internet that it cannot overcome without changing itself, the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization said recently in a landmark speech. And he proposed several elements for the way forward.