Original news and analysis on international IP policy
US Patent Commissioner Margaret A. (Peggy) Focarino today took over the duties as head of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), after Acting Director Teresa Rea's resignation took effect on 21 November, the USPTO said in a release.
As a bill aimed at curbing patent “trolls” and frivolous patent lawsuits makes its way through the United States Congress and states fight their own troll battles in the name of consumer protection, some patent attorneys and stakeholder groups want lawmakers to slow down and take a breath.
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA - There are human rights issues with intellectual property, Mmboneni Muofhe, deputy director-general for international cooperation and resources at the South African Department of Science and Technology, said at an industry-driven conference here this week.
NEW YORK - Anyone who depends on - and cares about – the American patent system needs to make some noise to their representatives in Congress and protest a potentially “awful” piece of legislation that has wide support, a popular US patent judge said this week.
NEW YORK - The US Chamber of Commerce has been on a campaign to show that India’s recent treatment of intellectual property is harming foreign investment and its economy. Last week, the heavyweight Washington industry group brought its argument directly to the investment community in Manhattan.
CAPE TOWN - The much-anticipated process of public submissions into the draft South Africa National Intellectual Property Policy has come to a close. The country’s trade minister says the office is busy collating the 100 documents submitted by interested stakeholders and plans to submit a formal policy to cabinet for approval in the first quarter of next year.
CAPE TOWN – The much-anticipated process of gathering public submissions on the draft South Africa National Intellectual Property Policy has come to a close. The country’s trade minister says the office is busy collating some 100 documents submitted by interested…
Margot Kaminski writes in Concurring Opinions: Yesterday, Wikileaks leaked the draft IP chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). The US Trade Representative has shown the draft text to its closed advisory committees, but not to anybody else. Content industries and pharmaceutical industries sit on the IP advisory committee. Internet industries, smaller innovators, generics companies, and public interest groups do not. This is no accident. When Congress established the trade negotiating system, it exempted the Trade Representative from requirements of an open government law that was enacted to prevent agency capture.
CNET News reports: A federal judge has dismissed a copyright infringement lawsuit that an author group brought against Google, concluding that books are like Web pages when it comes to indexing them and displaying small excerpts in search results.
The original 10 internet governance principles that formed the basis for Brazil's Marco Civil legislation were presented proudly by the Brazilian delegation to the Internet Governance Forum in Vilnius. That was in 2010. In 2012, civil society organisations warned that an amended Marco Civil could erode freedom of the internet. It took yet another year and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden to bring the original ideas, developed in a forward-looking broad public consultation process, back to the floor of the Brazilian Parliament – and there the fight was going on tonight (14 November).
Licences for Europe, a European Commission-launched stakeholder dialogue intended to make more copyright-protected content available online, ended today with some concrete proposals but also some criticism. The exercise - which focussed on cross-border access and portability of services, user-generated content and micro-licensing, audiovisual cultural heritage, and text and data mining - brought applause from book publishers and commercial broadcasters, but complaints from civil society groups and internet companies.
The US Supreme Court yesterday let stand an important appellate court ruling on copyright law, giving a boost to artists who repurpose others’ works and to supporters of fair use rights. This decision, however, upset many copyright owners, who fear it will allow their works to be used without payment and without their consent.