Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Microsoft legend Bill Gates is impassioned about helping to save lives as head of a large-scale foundation. Today, he explained to Intellectual Property Watch how intellectual property rights help drive that process forward and make it sustainable.
The United States fully supports the programme of reforms proposed by the World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan, the US health minister said today.
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.
World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan today presented her broad vision of a reformed WHO at the opening of the annual assembly of the organisation, and said the WHO was clear of suspicion of alleged pharmaceutical industry influence on the management of the H1N1 pandemic.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has urged the organisation responsible for the internet domain name system to step back from revising its procedures for judging disputes about cybersquatting. WIPO said a 6 May letter that ICANN has not sufficiently taken trademark owners' concerns into account.
More than five years since the last UN-led World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and less than five years before the 2015 target date of the Millennium Development Goals, experts and representatives of needy countries are in Geneva to assess how it is going. One thing they are being told: the price of information and communications technology services has dropped in the past two years.
NEW YORK - Experts at a recent conference on licensing revealed some of the behind the scenes thinking within industry on how to do great deals and keep from getting burned.
A European Union-backed project organised a conference at the World Trade Organization last week to rally Africa to the cause of geographical indications.
Several large technology companies such as Microsoft and Sony Ericsson have filed applications at the European Trademark Office seeking to invalidate Apple’s obtained rights to the trademarks ‘App Store’ and ‘Appstore.’
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.
The European Commission recently signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at boosting cooperation between rights holders and internet platforms in the fight against counterfeit products sold online.
Two new reports circulated in Geneva this week examine ways to improve technology transfer to least-developed countries (LDCs) as mandated under international intellectual property trade rules, and assessments of the intellectual property needs of LDCs in recent years.