Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The European Copyright Society, an august group of copyright experts from across Europe, has issued a letter to new European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Günther Oettinger supporting his mandate to pursue copyright reform and calling for a unification of European copyright laws.
WASHINGTON, DC – Last week was ‘old home week’ for officials in the United States intellectual property attaché program, as they returned before the holidays from their posts around the world. Speaking publicly, the officials gave mixed reports on the fight to advance IP rights worldwide. They also heard harsh but determined words about the situation in Geneva from the industry perspective. Two more attaché offices will open next year, and several attachés last week called for an elevation in their rank in order to enable them to have access to higher level officials in other countries.
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It is a novel way to attack online copyright infringement. Two music companies have sued an internet service provider, alleging that because the ISP failed to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers, the ISP is guilty of secondary infringement. This lawsuit troubles many copyright experts and its success is far from certain, but the music companies may achieve their aims regardless.
The American Invents Act of 2011 (AIA) created inter partes review (IPR), a new opposition-like proceeding conducted at the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in the US Patent and Trademark Office to challenge the validity of patent claims based on prior art patents and printed publications. Since then, conventional wisdom has advised filing a petition for IPR quickly after being sued for patent infringement, because any deficiencies or mistakes the PTAB identifies could be corrected with a second petition later on. Several recent decisions from the PTAB reveal limits to that strategy.
The United States and China yesterday concluded a three-day high-level meeting with numerous outcomes on intellectual property rights, including: local treatment of IP, trade secrets, geographical indications, inventor rights, patent data, sales of IP-intensive goods and services, online infringement, treatment of IP in standard-setting, bad-faith trademark filings, judicial best practices, and licensing of technology, according to the United States.
The population in Uganda has been growing rapidly. The country now has 35 million people. In order to provide quality services to its citizens and to improve the national competitiveness through administration innovation, the government has adopted free and open source software as the preferred mode of operation for electronic government (e-government) services and platforms.
During the recent meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee, a study was presented on exceptions and limitations to copyright for libraries and archives at the national level. The presentation spurred a full day of discussion about how to ensure libraries can continue to provide an indispensable service, and a substantive exchange with the author.
The World Intellectual Property Organization this week issued its 2014 edition of the World Intellectual Property Indicators report, finding growth in intellectual property filings in China and the United States, and decline in Europe and Japan.
After two years of negotiations, the draft Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) stands at 17 horizontal and sector-specific proposals, negotiators told Intellectual Property Watch after the 2-5 December Geneva round of negotiations. The sector-specific annexes of the agreement, sources confirm, include one on telecommunication and one all e-commerce aspects.