Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Improved searches and application quality and a focus on backlog reduction are necessary to improve the patent system, patent authorities concluded at a World Intellectual Property Organization symposium last week. This will require patent offices around the world to work together, and the WIPO Patent Cooperation Treaty, most speakers said, is the path forward for global patent coordination.
Several strategy papers laying out a plan to aid European Union member states in responding to the pandemic outbreak of H1N1 influenza were published last week by the European Commission, as Europe enters its fall flu season. Meanwhile, a partnership between the Commission and the European pharmaceutical industry announced a second call for proposals, aimed at increasing research and development of medicines for cancer as well as infectious disease.
World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Francis Gurry was accompanied publicly for the first time by the United Nations agency’s first economist as they presented data Friday showing the positive correlation between patent applications and economic cycles.
Google’s court settlement in the United States that could allow the search engine giant to sell scanned books online is increasingly coming under fire prior to the final hearing in the matter next month. Government entities and groups in the United States and in Europe that oppose the settlement could, at the very least, temporarily derail Google Book Search, according to sources.
Stakeholders gathered this week to discuss a European approach to the governance of the internet in the lead-up to the next global forum on the issue.
The second European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) took place in Geneva on 14-15 September and brought together some 200 representatives.
The way the patent system is currently structured rewards slowness and low quality, but the needed changes will have to include a new revenue model, a top European patent official said today.
COPENHAGEN - Technology transfer is bound to be part of a possible new international climate deal at the high-level meeting in Copenhagen in December, according to officials. Meanwhile, international economists have concluded that such transfers constitute a win-win situation for developed and developing countries when it comes to combating climate change.
The European Commission Trade Directorate today adopted a "communication on enhancing the enforcement of intellectual property rights" within the European Union internal market that aims at greater coordination but stops short of new legislative measures.
Four recent Federal Circuit decisions suggest that small molecules are special and may be relatively unaffected by the US Supreme Court KSR decision, write Photon Rao and George Best.
L’action en justice intentée récemment contre le Bureau américain des brevets et des marques de commerce par une entreprise de biotechnologie et une fondation concernant des brevets sur les gènes associés au cancer a permis d’attirer l'attention de l’opinion internationale sur la question du brevetage des gènes humains, une pratique contre laquelle un groupe d'associations influentes a exprimé son opposition le 27 août.
Según un informe arbitral que la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) ha publicado en el contexto de una diferencia entre el Brasil y los Estados Unidos (EE UU) sobre subvenciones al algodón americano, el primer país tendría derecho a adoptar contramedidas en materia de comercio en contra de EE UU y, en determinadas circunstancias, a suspender obligaciones en materia de propiedad intelectual (PI).
Un site Internet proposant de la musique et des films en téléchargement illimité pour un prix dérisoire cherche à tirer profit d’une décision d’arbitrage prise en 2007 par l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) concernant un différend entre l’île antillaise d’Antigua-et-Barbuda et les États-Unis, par laquelle Antigua a reçu l’autorisation de suspendre certaines de ses obligations en matière de propriété intellectuelle vis-à-vis des États-Unis. Cette action soulève des questions concernant la mise en application des mesures de rétorsion croisée, qui permettent à un pays plaignant de trouver réparation dans un secteur différent de celui où le pays défendeur a commis une infraction.