Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Frank La Rue, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, in a statement about last week's World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), underlined the importance of civil society in discussions about the future of the internet.
Washington, DC - United States attachés stationed around the world in order to promote intellectual property rights reported on their activities to US industry here last week. And the attachès posted in Geneva had strong words for the work of non-governmental organisations operating at the World Trade Organization and the United Nations agencies.
Dubai, UAE - A mere resolution, not part of the future International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR), led to yet another escalation at the ongoing World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai last night.
Dubai, UAE - The internet is not completely out of the first consolidated draft proposal for the future International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR) that was introduced late on 11 December at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai.
The World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) has affirmed the right to freedom of information online, the secretariat of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said in a press release on day two in Dubai, Qatar, where over 160 country delegations since yesterday are talking about the future global telecommunications rules.
UN International Telecommunication Union Secretary General Hamadoun Touré used a press conference on the eve of the much-anticipated World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) which starts in Dubai next week to call on the Syrian government to investigate problems of access to the mobile network and internet in Syria and do "anything necessary to restore the access."
United States Ambassador Terry Kramer, head of the US delegation to the upcoming UN-led World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) in Dubai, in a press call today warned against proposals that would invite the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to get into the business of internet governance, be it routing interventions, content control issues, or changes in accounting for internet traffic. Yet reacting to an earlier call by ex-White House official Andrew McLaughlin at a New America Foundation conference to "dismantle the ITU", Kramer said: "I do not think the ITU is the problem."
European Union lawmakers will vote soon on a non-binding measure aimed at protecting genetic resources and fighting biopiracy, or misappropriation. Despite the critical importance of these issues, efforts to draw the European Parliament's attention to the resolution have been difficult and its outcome is less than clear, its author says.
Several countries have established fast-track programmes to expedite the examination of environmentally oriented, or “green,” patents. Preliminary findings from a study assessing the success of those programmes were presented last week to Geneva intellectual property professionals.
The debates are getting more heated with the December World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) in Dubai coming closer. Google today (21 November) launched one of its big campaigns to rally support against what it says is an attempt by some countries to “further regulate the internet” and potentially limit free speech through censorship.
A new report from the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) proposes solutions to advancing the global technology transfer debate to better bridge the development gap between developed countries and the global South.
World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan today issued a statement attempting to clarify the UN agency's relationship with the industries - like producers of junk food and soda - in line to be regulated as the UN moves to battle globally rising noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.