Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that Trevor Mundel has been named president of the foundation's Global Health Program. Mundel is global head of development for Novartis Pharma in Basel, Switzerland and will start at Gates on 1 December.
A new multi-stakeholder declaration demanding that the public interest be returned to intellectual property rights was issued this week and is open for signatures by anyone, already collecting hundreds of supporters. The declaration contains numerous principles and actions, such as restraint in enforcement, open access, and development priorities, that the drafters hope will help change the course of IP policymaking.
A grand jury in the United States has charged website Ninjavideo.net with criminal copyright conspiracy for allowing large-scale unauthorised movie downloads, the US Justice Department announced today.
The United States Senate on Thursday passed historic patent reform legislation – but not before some heated debate on the chamber’s floor. It now goes to President Obama for his signature. Intellectual Property Watch offers a look at who wins and what will now change.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiated last year will be open for signature for two years, until the first of May 2013. But while this looks like a long time, it likely will be needed by the 37 negotiating governments (including the United States, Japan, South Korea and the 27 European Union members) to iron out problems on their way to implementing what some rights owners welcomed as a possible new “gold standard” for the enforcement of intellectual property rights.
The United States Senate on Tuesday was debating patent reform legislation that would make the first significant reforms to the US patent system in nearly 60 years.
The United States Senate voted to invoke cloture and limit debate on patent reform Tuesday night, with a vote of 93-5. The measure, HR 1249, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, now will go to the Senate floor for debate and final passage; a vote could happen as early as Thursday.
The United States Chamber of Commerce this week released a letter urging the US government to take a series of steps to boost jobs in America, including passing controversial legislation to allow the US to unilaterally crack down on international websites it deems to be in violation of US intellectual property rights. But not everyone agrees this is the best approach.
The United States Department of Justice today announced it has filed an antitrust lawsuit to block US telecommunications company AT&T from acquiring one of its top rivals, Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile. The Justice Department cited likely harm to innovation and consumers as reasons.
The Recording Industry Association of America today announced that Cary Sherman has been named chairman and CEO amid claims that the music industry is looking up. Sherman takes over for Mitch Bainwol, who resigned to become CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.
Preparing patents is both a science and an art. The science is often easy to recognize, if not always easy to understand. The art of properly expressing that science in the words of a patent claim is harder to evaluate and is more often overlooked, yet is crucial to the value of the patent, write Heather J. DiPietrantonio and Edmund J. Walsh.
The United States Senate is expected to hold a vote on a bill to modify US patent law, in part making it more closely aligned with international practices, according to Senate sources. But some are concerned the bill will not end patent fee diversion at the US Patent and Trademark Office.