Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Office of the United States Trade Representative on Friday said it had reviewed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) under negotiation and has decided to move ahead on the treaty. Negotiating countries will meet in Morocco in July, and the targeted completion is still 2010.
Facebook users starting Saturday will get the chance to add a nickname of their choice to the web address of their profiles. These new usernames, which will make Facebook addresses easier to find and easier to remember, are being assigned…
Major public health funders have alighted upon an industry-favoured approach of guaranteeing certain prices to industry to make vaccines available to least-developed country markets.
The coming months could spell changes in the long-running World Trade Organization talks on creating a register for wines and spirits geographical indications and amending WTO rules to better protect biodiversity rights. Developed countries that have been blocking progress on the issues for years may be pushed at a political level, according to some sources.
BANGKOK - The European Union told Asian countries Thursday that protecting geographical indications of their products would benefit their poor, rural people as the EU is offering to renew its intellectual property cooperation with regional countries with GI enforcement as a greater element.
The French Constitutional Council on Wednesday decided that two articles of a newly passed law creating a graduated punishment mechanism for alleged copyright infringement on the internet did not comply with the French Constitution. The government has options to proceed with changes reflecting the setback to the so-called HADOPI law.
WASHINGTON, DC - Copyright holders on Wednesday acknowledged they have done a poor job of countering the "anti-copyright" lobby and demonstrating the creative community's value to the world.
BRUSSELS - India’s status as a top world supplier of generic medicines could be threatened by a free trade agreement its government is negotiating with the European Union, a new study has concluded. Separately, the World Customs Organization has abandoned its intellectual property rights enforcement group, replacing it with a non-policymaking information committee.
Warnings about a possible split of the single root zone underlying the global internet have been made by internet governance experts outside the United States following a hearing of the US congressional Subcommittee on Communication Technologies and the Internet on…
WASHINGTON, DC - France's "three strikes" law is both "ambitious" and "realistic," French culture and communication minister Christine Albanel told a conference Tuesday, and anyone who thinks the internet can be a lawless arena where anything goes is "in the wrong century." Also at the conference, predictions were made on US legislation on patent reform, performance rights and other issues.