Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch
Far from being a bizarre by-product of the online society created by Second Life, a recently launched US intellectual property (IP) infringement case against one of its "avatars" is very much grounded in the real world, legal experts say. However, the fact that the first-of-its-kind case involves a "virtual" product raises interesting legal and social questions, they say.
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted to delay approval of a World Trade Organization agreement on patents for medicines, pending European Union governments giving greater political and financial support to poor…
By Tatum Anderson for Intellectual Property Watch
A patent infringement case brought by US technology firm Qualcomm against Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia at the US-based International Trade Commission (ITC) has been reinvigorated, with a hearing scheduled for 10 September.
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch Belgian Internet service provider (ISP) Scarlet Extended Ltd. (formerly Tiscali) must filter infringing music downloads, the Brussels Court of First Instance ruled recently. The decision, the first of its kind in Europe, dismissed…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch After four years of evermore controversial debate the German Parliament late Thursday passed another reform of the German Copyright Law intended to make updates for the digital age. But some are already planning…
By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen Officials from the governments of China and India discussed challenges in developing national strategies for intellectual property and innovation at a recent colloquium, but common to both countries were aims to boost local innovation by…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch
MUNICH - After years of debate, the window of opportunity could be closing for the proposed next step for harmonising the European patent system by creating a centralised European patent court, judging by comments from officials.
German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries, at a two-day symposium on the Future of the European Patent Jurisdiction in Munich this week, said that if European governments were unable to agree on an overall concept, "we should have the courage to put an end to the discussion and stay with the status quo."
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch Webcasters across the United States fell silent on 26 June in an effort to influence the passage of legislation reversing royalty rate increases many say will kill radio delivered over the Internet. The…
By Tatum Anderson for Intellectual Property Watch
A debate over how long to give exclusive rights over data submitted by pharmaceutical companies to governments in order to receive approval to sell a drug in their markets is controversial not only in India, but worldwide.
By Tatum Anderson for Intellectual Property Watch
When the Indian government published its report recently on yet another pharmaceutical patent-related issue predicted to split the industry, the Indian newspapers were divided as to whether brand name producers, generics producers or public health advocates had won.
The reason for the confusion is that the report is an exercise in appeasement, said Shamnad Basheer, a law professor at George Washington University Law School, and expert on this latest controversial subject, called data exclusivity, which is the rights drugs producers have over the data used to obtain marketing approval in a country.