Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Some international organisations are having to gear up to address proposed cuts to their budgets announced this month by the United States, in many cases the major funder. Geneva-based health agencies this week responded that they are counting on the US not to make significant cuts.
The steady increase in innovations relating to new digital technologies, in particular technologies using artificial intelligence, is matched by an upward patenting trend. The European Patent Office recently issued a study on the subject and is preparing a conference in May, while the World Intellectual Property Organization is working on its own in-depth study. However, the current patent system might not be ready for artificial intelligence-related inventions, according to a global standards-setting body.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation launched a project last year to measure progress in artificial intelligence innovations and understand the legal, political, and technical issues potentially raised by those inventions. Some eight months later, the project has tracked rapid progress of those technologies, in particular in machine learning. According to the foundation, patents might be hampering the progress of artificial intelligence, and with the risk of patent trolls claiming rights on patents on machine learning systems.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is predicting a slight decline in some patent filings for 2018 and 2019, including through the international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization. Trademarks, meanwhile, will likely see slowing growth.
In a recent trademark opposition, the Opposition Board of the Japan Patent Office (JPO) decided to overrule the opposition against TM Registration no. 5951823 for word mark “TÉ CON MIEL” designating tea in class 30 due to distinctiveness of the mark among relevant Japanese consumers.
Pharmaceutical company Gilead has made headlines in recent years for offering the hepatitis C drug Sovaldi that has helped many patients. And for the fact that it came with an eye-popping price tag. Perhaps in a sign of the times, Gilead this month won an open-and-shut case against a squatter on the domain name "sovaldi.eu," that was offering lower-priced generic versions of Sovaldi, including through links to "buyers' clubs" organised to obtain medicines more affordably. The website was called, "SOVALDI. The life-saving cure for Hepatitis C which nobody can afford." Was it a little act of rebellion, or just another internet opportunist?
Copyright laws around the world are constantly changing in an attempt to adapt – or react – to the digital world. These changes can have a major impact on how libraries function and on the public service they provide. While some reforms offer new possibilities and legal certainty, others look backwards and seek to use the law to restrict the ability of libraries to guarantee meaningful information access to their users, IFLA writes.
Article One Partners (AOP), the world leader in crowdsourced intellectual property research, is now into their 10th year. Intellectual Property Watch recently arranged an interview with Article One Partners CEO Peter Vanderheyden to get an update on how the company has evolved in response to the ever-changing IP landscape, and in light of their commitment to IP quality.
The United States Chamber of Commerce industry group recently issued its annual global IP index, analysing intellectual property protection in 50 countries, as a prelude to the annual US government list of countries seen as not adequately protection US companies' IP rights. Now an Indian industry group has issued a counter-statement to the Chamber index, calling it a "tirade" and "self-serving".
The European Union Council of Ministers today adopted a decision that enables the EU to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty on access to published works for blind and visually impaired readers starting in summer. The copyright exceptions treaty negotiated at the World Intellectual Property Organization and adopted in 2013, went into effect in September 2016 but has been held up in Europe.
More than 50 organisations representing a range of teachers, students, trainers, researchers, scientists, librarians and others have joined together to call on the European Parliament to improve European copyright reform for education.
CARB-X, the private-public partnership for research on antimicrobial resistance, today announced its first award of 2018, nearly $2 million for the development of a new class of antibiotics. Meanwhile, the group has announced it is seeking to partner with accelerator organisations to build its pipeline of early development research projects. It also announced a study that called for a new global approach and greater financial incentives for antibiotic research.