Original news and analysis on international IP policy
PARIS – Fashion industry representatives and others in France are mulling ways to use the intellectual property system more effectively to protect innovations in fashion, with the support of the French government.
China has been filing patents at far greater rates than any other nation on earth in recent years. This week, a Thomson Reuters report broke down that growth and compared it with other leading nations on the basis of innovation.
As staff strikes continue and the European Patent Office's Administrative Council prepares for what could be a contentious 11 December meeting, opinions are split over the effect of the turmoil on the office's role in Europe's unitary patent.
There is an uptick in India-United States relations. US President Barack Obama will be in India in January as the chief guest at the country’s Republic Day Parade. Obama, who hosted India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington in September, will become the first US president to attend such a celebration, a display of India’s military might and ethnic diversity, as well as the first to visit India twice while in office.
As a result of the America Invents Act enacted three years ago, the United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) now handles inter partes reviews (IPR)—a new trial proceeding used to challenge the validity of patent claims based on patents and printed publications. Recently, the PTAB has caused a split concerning the proper scope of the IPR joinder provision, which grants the PTAB discretion to join a “party” to a previously-instituted IPR. In the past, the PTAB interpreted the term “party” expansively to include petitioners for whom it had already instituted an IPR. Petitioners were quick to jump on this loophole, and have since sought to raise new arguments in an instituted IPR by filing a subsequent petition and seeking joinder with the in-progress proceeding.
A seminar on innovation and access to medicine last week examined the issue of access to hepatitis C treatment, looking at the HIV/AIDS path. Voluntary licences, such as the one entered by Gilead for its hepatitis drugs, have been applauded but such licences often do not cover middle-income countries, which are home to the bulk of hepatitis C patients, and whose poor populations remain unable to access treatment.
A civil society coalition is after one of European Monsanto's patents, accusing the giant seed corporation of biopiracy. The patent granted in February was challenged by the No Patents on Seeds coalition, which filed an opposition a few days ago.
For the first time, the European Advocate-General has suggested on the grounds of European competition law the context for negotiations of fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, and has set criteria for the enforcement of injunctions and other remedies in actions involving infringement of standard-essential patents (SEPs). The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decision is still pending.
The Association of European Performers’ Organisations (AEPO-ARTIS) has released a study showing that EU legislation does not provide adequate protection to performers for the legal exploitation of their performances on the internet.
China has set up an administrative office called the Shanghai City Pudong New Area Intellectual Property Office, integrating patent, trademark and copyright administration in the Pudong New Area in Shanghai city.
Alberto Bichi is secretary-general of the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI), based in Brussels. In an interview with Intellectual Property Watch’s Catherine Saez, he describes FESI's mission, the views of the industry on the importance of intellectual property protection, and the growing issue of counterfeiting. He also talked about the industry's concern over the current European Union customs regulation on goods in transit, which, according to him is negatively impacting the sector.
The highly esteemed Center for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) in Strasbourg will mark its 50th anniversary this week with a conference featuring the top names in the European IP community. Below is the press release announcing the event: Conference…