Original news and analysis on international IP policy
World Trade Organization Director General Roberto Azevêdo this week hailed WTO’s intellectual property agreement, saying the past two decades show it provides a balanced multilateral foundation for the growth of trade in knowledge-rich products and services.
The 28-member Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration is en route to being revised to include geographical indications and allow international organisations to join the agreement. But some other member countries of the World Intellectual Property Organization, which oversees the agreement, are raising procedural questions and intend on having a say on the revision. [Update: new proposal now available]
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is holding meetings of its governing and technical bodies this week. In particular, the UPOV Council is expected to renew Francis Gurry's mandate as the organisation’s secretary-general, approve technical documents, and confirm the conformity of a Tanzanian plant breeders' rights act.
Meanwhile, civil society has sounded the alarm over what it considers to be efforts to harmonise the application and examination procedures by the seed industry. Separately, a civil society study, carried out on three developing countries claims that UPOV 1991 might be threatening the global right to food.
“Intellectual property is a substantial chunk of business investment,” Tony Clayton, chief economist in the United Kingdom IP Office, told a side gathering at the recent World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly. “It really does matter.”
The Paris-based International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC) represents 230 collective management organisations in 120 countries, collecting fees on behalf of “creators.” In the past year, CISAC has become active advocating the case of creators at the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR).
CISAC organised a side event to the annual WIPO General Assembly in September (IPW, WIPO, 29 September 2014). Intellectual Property Watch’s Catherine Saez sat down with new CISAC Director General Gadi Oron after the side event, to ask him about his vision for the organisation.
A recent cybersquatting case processed under the World Intellectual Property Organization internet domain dispute procedures offers a possible glimpse of the plight of ordinary internet users in a global system dominated by large companies and their legal teams.
To hear some delegates’ late night closing statements at the General Assembly last night, developing country goals at the World Intellectual Property Organization died this week, as key issues met roadblocks in every direction. But all member states claimed to be shaken by the crash of WIPO’s normative agenda this week, putting the model for negotiating at the UN agency into question.
On the side of the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly last week, sports and entertainment broadcasters held an event to highlight the challenges they are facing in the digital world, in particular unauthorised retransmission of live events.
World Intellectual Property Organization members have approved an amendment to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) aimed at lowering fees for a greater number of users.
The revision of a World Intellectual Property Organization agreement to include geographical indications, raising their status, was challenged in vain by some countries in the past week. In addition, this week’s WIPO General Assembly has been working intensively on a range of other issues.
Over 50 organisations have co-signed a letter to the International Plant Treaty calling for it to safeguard the implementation of farmers’ rights in the context of joint activities with the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).
Creative artists came to this week's World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly to encourage governments to build a sustainable future for creators and ensure fair remuneration for their work. This may mean looking for ways to redistribute the value of content.