Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The UN International Telecommunication Union is conducting constructive and potentially lucrative negotiations to update global telecommunications regulations, but the message keeps getting garbled in public fora, ITU officials said.
The next president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was named today.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) today issued a declaration in support of public service media's role in society, including as a driver of innovation and a trusted independent voice.
The freedom to access the internet does not translate into freedom of expression in many countries of the world, including in western economies, according to speakers at a peer forum organised yesterday by the United States mission to the United Nations in Geneva.
At its annual meeting this week in Boston, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), put its name to a report promoting the advantages of intellectual property rights for the industry.
In an unprecedented move, the European Parliament Committee on International Trade (INTA) today in Brussels passed a report recommending the rejection of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Never before has INTA voted to reject a trade agreement negotiated by the Union.
World Intellectual Property Organization members yesterday resumed a 12-year-old top-level negotiation for a treaty on the protection of performers’ rights in audiovisual productions, this time with the eloquent urgings of some of the world’s top film and television actors to finish the job.
A new pharmaceutical industry initiative aimed at improving access to HIV treatments in least-developed countries is raising questions as to how it will fit with the Medicines Patent Pool, an existing group with a similar mandate. As an informal meeting on the new initiative kicks off this week in New Delhi, scrutiny will be paid to whether the initiative’s drivers are several companies that have declined to negotiate with the patent pool and whether it is a good-faith effort to help the greatest number of patients.
UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary General Hamadoun Touré today in Geneva announced he would propose to the ITU Council later this month to make the draft documents for the much-debated International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR) publicly accessible. The effort could help diminish some of the hype in the United States about an effort by the UN to increase control of the internet.
The South African national anthem comprises the works Nkosi Sikelela’ iAfrika and Die Stem, which was formerly the national anthem. Nkosi has passed into the public domain and contrary to various claims cannot be used as the basis for royalty claims arising out of its use. The music of Die Stem is however still under copyright but its ownership has reverted from the State to the heirs of the composer in terms of the reversionary interest provisions of the British Imperial Copyright Act and is thus the subject of private ownership. In principle royalties can be charged in respect of its use as part of the current national anthem.
A draft of the outcome document for this week’s Rio+20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, said to be close to the final version, shows where governments have placed their focus. It appears that technology transfer is well-recognised, intellectual property rights to a lesser extent, but firm actions in these areas may still be to come.
The World Health Organization has published a paper that explains to policymakers and others how to take measures to protect public health against tobacco while staying within the bounds of international trade and investment law, under intense industry pressure. Key aspects of the report deal with intellectual property rights policy, as it relates to international trade.