Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The German Constitutional Court in a fast-track decision today rejected the granting of emergency injunctions against a German signature of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) of Europe with Canada.
The term “Open” in science is all the rage these days.
With management-staff relations at the European Patent Office still spiralling downward, staff members are pressing the office's governing council to consider adopting proposed disciplinary and investigation guidelines currently under discussion in the World Intellectual Property Organization.
A European civil society group defending rights and freedoms in the digital environment awarded Facebook the Belgian Big Brother Awards 2016 yesterday.
Following a public hearing at its headquarters in Munich, the European Patent Office (EPO) decided to reject in part the arguments made by Gilead Sciences to uphold their patent on sofosbuvir, according to a non-profit group.
European Union trade ministers at an informal meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia today agreed on the final steps to enact CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU. There will be no other reopening of the text, assured EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem after the meeting. But ministers have agreed, according to Slovak Minister of Economy Peter Ziga, that some sensitive issues have to be straightened out in an additional annex to the CETA text.
The Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI) and the European Commission recently signed a memorandum of understanding that sets out to “establish a code of practice in the fight against the sale of counterfeit goods over the internet and to enhance collaboration between the signatories.”
Criminals are increasingly blocking access to digitised intellectual property and then charging their victims ransom to get it back, as “ransomware” attacks become increasingly common and sophisticated.
In a bid to push forward their ongoing membership negotiations with the European Union, two Balkan States have moved to further harmonise their intellectual property regulations in line with EU legislation. Albania's new copyright law will enter into force this October, and Montenegro's amended legislation on trademarks, industrial design and topographies of semiconductor products entered into force last July.
In Berlin, Hamburg and five other cities in Germany, some 320,000 citizens today protested against the adoption of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Industry research on music consumer behaviour has found changes in practices of accessing and listening to music. It has been found that, whilst paid audio streaming services grew, copyright infringement remains a significant problem. Next up? Stream ripping.
The European Court of Justice today ruled that a shop offering Wifi is not liable for copyright infringements on its network but may be forced by rightsholders to require passwords to use the network. [Update: Reactions are being added below]