Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Today at the World Intellectual Property Organization, Ecuador signed the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled, which is administered by WIPO.
The World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly today approved the report of a working group tasked with drafting the conditions of re-appointment of the WIPO director general, who was re-elected today.
Some five minutes is all it took this morning for the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly to re-elect Francis Gurry at the head of WIPO for the next six years. All delegations taking the floor congratulated the director general and underlined the achievements under his current mandate. However, the matter of allegations by one of the WIPO deputy directors general is being investigated.
Tomorrow, World Intellectual Property Organization members decide whether to re-elect Francis Gurry as director general for another six years. The decision was complicated in recent weeks by detailed allegations of wrongdoing by Gurry put forward by Gurry’s deputy, raising questions about member states’ responsibility in investigating such claims.
Digitisation of copyrighted works is in growing demand, and books are increasingly being made widely available in digital form. Two forms of works however - orphan and out-of-commerce works - are in danger of missing out, said speakers at a recent World Intellectual Property Organization event, and there is a risk of forever losing an important part of our cultural heritage embedded in these works. Another panel, meanwhile, illustrated that laws on copyright and licensing also present obstacles to cross-border use of digitised works by universities, libraries and archives.
Last week, the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee ended without agreement on the conclusions of the meeting or its future work, to the dismay of librarians and archivists associations. During the week, numerous representatives of these communities gave vigorous accounts of why a treaty is vital to grant them exceptions to copyright.
World Intellectual Property Organization delegates sitting on the copyright committee had to declare defeat late into the night yesterday as they could not agree on the conclusions of the meeting or its future work. The efforts by developing countries to craft a treaty providing copyright exceptions for libraries and archives met with stonewalled resistance by some developed countries, in particular the European Union.
The World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee this week has sunk its teeth into the issue of exceptions and limitations to copyright for libraries and archives. Some countries are pushing for a treaty to establish such exceptions while others find that the existing copyright system provides for it.
A presentation of the Tunis Model Law this week at a World Intellectual Property Organization side event addressed how it could be updated and used as a tool to help developing countries implement new developments in international copyright-related law.
Nongovernmental organisations attending the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee meeting which this week sought to breach differences on what a treaty protecting broadcasters should cover, expressed their views with some unusual coherence.