Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The European Parliament last week overwhelmingly adopted a text on transparency that was said to improve conditions for generic medicines in the region. The voting documents are now available.
A new quarterly report on patent sales by technology shows that in 2012 the median price paid for issued US patents was US$ 221,000, while the average price paid was US$ 374,000.
The United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office has appointed its fourth IP attaché, this time to represent UK businesses in the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Intellectual Ventures, a patent holding company, has filed a patent infringement suit against DSL providers AT&T, CenturyLink and Windstream Communications.
A 2011 letter from the top Republican on the United States Senate Finance Committee condemned efforts by the Global Fund to train public health officials on the use of flexibilities to the patent system contained in international trade rules. The letter, which also attacked the purchase of generic medicines over brand-name drugs, came just months before the US helped remove the head of the Global Fund, ultimately replacing him with an American official.
The coming year promises to be very interesting at the intersection of intellectual property with biotechnology and biodiversity. Patentability of human genes in the United States, of conventionally bred plants in Europe, plant breeders' rights and the management of regulatory authorisations when patents on genetic traits expire, the future of genetically modified organisms in developing countries, and the usual resistance they are meeting from civil society and famers' groups are some of the issues that will continue to feed debates – and potentially create opportunities - in 2013.
Manila, Philippines – The Republic of Korea, or South Korea, has signed an agreement with Vietnam for stronger collaboration in the area of copyright protection. This reflects South Korea's continuing and more aggressive campaign to protect its copyrighted works here in southeast Asia.
The United States Department of Justice today announced it has reached a settlement with Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC, which does business as Macmillan, for allegedly conspiring with Apple Inc. to raise e-book prices.
Copyright for Librarians (CFL), an online open curriculum on copyright law, has launched a new textbook aimed at providing librarians in developing and transition countries with general information concerning copyright law in addition to the aspects of the law that most affect libraries.
A few years ago, internet giant Google had the idea to digitise tens of millions of the world’s books and ran into legal trouble with the publishers and authors of some of them. The cases have moved through many stages, but the ultimate fate of the massive amounts of knowledge it could have made available to the public is still to come, says a Washington, DC lawyer who has followed the case closely for years.
The heads of state of the African Union (AU), the regional body working on African integration, have decided to proceed with the establishment of a Pan-African Intellectual Property Office (PAIPO), despite misgivings about the potential impact on their local economies.
The European Commission has launched an initiative called “Licences for Europe” aimed at promoting copyright licences, as a next step in maintaining traditional copyright in light of new digital technologies.