Original news and analysis on international IP policy
What is a mandatory licence? Mandatory licenses are a legal remedy within the intellectual property flexibilities provided by the World Trade Organization allowing a government to grant permission to third parties to produce a patented product or use a patented process without the consent of the patentee, in order to address a priority status for the country.
European Union governments may allow libraries to digitise books in their collection without rights owners' consent in order to make them available at electronic reading posts, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said on 11 September. If library users want to print works out on paper or store them on a USB stick, however, rights holders must be fairly compensated.
The World Intellectual Property Organization this week released the decision in an internet domain name dispute in which the current incarnation of the once-wildly successful Napster music-sharing website successfully forced a website called napster.fm to shut down over intellectual property rights violations. Is Napster still cool?
The structure of new European Commissioners and top officials was announced today, showing changes to the handling on intellectual property issues and many others.
Leading US trade associations representing the high-technology industry yesterday issued a joint letter urging the Senate to pass reforms to US surveillance programmes. The effort comes after revelations about the US surveillance have harmed overseas markets for US technologies, they said.
By William Rava and Jason Howell, Perkins Coie Product packaging is an increasingly important marketing opportunity. Well-executed product packaging can support and strengthen your brand identity, differentiate your product on the shelf, and convey important, and often required, information to…
Newly arrived United States Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Pamela Hamamoto last week met with journalists for the first time by highlighting internet governance and Ebola, with a mention of intellectual property rights, among other issues.
A 3 September European Court of Justice decision on the concept of “parody” is a controversial attempt to harmonise copyright law judicially where legislative efforts have failed, and raises more questions than it answers, intellectual property lawyers said. But the decision won't affect implementation of the United Kingdom's new copyright exception for parody, the UK Intellectual Property Office said.
ISTANBUL - The Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow in the end somehow reconnected the 9th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the new Internet Ungovernance Forum held in Istanbul last week. The nearly decade-old UN-led IGF initiative is facing profound new challenges as the global split widens over the future of the internet.
Applicants to the European “Innovation Communities” initiative have until 10 September to submit joint innovation proposals in the areas of healthy aging and raw materials. The aim is to create new organisations compliant with the European grant programme Horizon 2020, which will operate under flexible intellectual property rights’ policies in collaborative innovation projects.
The world and the global health community have been taken by surprise by the worst outbreak of Ebola so far. The World Health Organization today (5 September) said a vaccine could be available in November 2014 if proven safe. So far, according to the WHO, intellectual property issues have not acted as a barrier to accessing potential treatments and vaccines, and the focus for now is on emergency measures to find health solutions.
Will India’s new government bring in radical changes in the country’s intellectual property rights regime? That question has generated enormous buzz but no definitive answer ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power with a decisive mandate in May this year.
[Update: the Indian government has announced that it has begun a process for a comprehensive IPR policy over the next six months, including a government think tank. See report here. The government website is here.]