Original news and analysis on international IP policy
From the Internet Governance Forum: Remixing WIPO - soon it could be possible that the World Intellectual Property Organization is moving to Creative Commons licences. But could the CC-licenced WIPO material be blocked by new provisions in the prospective broadcasting treaty?
Nanotechnologies, 3D printing and robotics are areas of potential breakthrough technologies, and mostly happening in the most developed countries, with China catching up, a World Intellectual Property Organization report has found. Knowledge-sharing is an important factor of innovation, facilitated by intellectual property, according to the report. However, the world may have reached its innovation peak and may have to content with low economic growth.
Intense negotiations are going on this week at the World Intellectual Property Organization over an external review of how the World Intellectual Property Organization delivers technical assistance on intellectual property to developing and least-developed countries. At stake is how to implement some of the recommendations suggested in the four-year old report.
WASHINGTON, DC -- The sun may be setting on multilateral policymaking in intellectual property in the eyes of industry, but leading United States and European Union representatives insist on its continued vital role in trade and economy. But a “new narrative” is needed as they emphasise bilateral and plurilateral agreements.
A recent workshop on patentability criteria illustrated how countries are using the policy space provided by international trade rules to calibrate their patent law. In particular, incremental innovation remains a trying issue for national legislators, speakers said.
In opening the 10th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) of the United Nations in Joao Pessoa, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called for solutions to internet access, but also to address challenges in online human rights, especially privacy.
The European Union Council of ministers today adopted its position on the reform of the European trademark system. The Netherlands delegation abstained from voting out of concern that the proposed reform introduces the possibility to stop goods in transit for possible intellectual property infringement.
The mobile, satellite and broadcasting industries are campaigning for bigger shares of the finite resource that is radio-frequency spectrum at the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU)’s treaty-making conference this month. And in an exhibition area alongside the conference, some of the world’s biggest tech companies are pitching their need for greater spectrum allocation in the hopes of influencing the conference’s outcomes. Among them is Facebook's Internet.org project.
As governments at the United Nations negotiate outcome documents for the 10 year review of the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the rest of the stakeholders of the global internet are fighting for a voice, especially users. A recent event alongside the WSIS talks explored the user perspective, and discussed the future of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the annual meeting taking place this week in Brazil.
The Medicines Patent Pool has announced the expansion of its mandate to cover hepatitis C and tuberculosis treatment. The MPP was previously concentrating only on HIV medicines.