Screenshot of the original NeXT web browser in 1993. (Photo Credit: CERN)

Twenty years ago the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) put its WorldWideWeb technology in the public domain.

The technology was invented in 1989 at Geneva-based CERN by Tim Berners-Lee, according to CERN, and was originally meant for information-sharing between physicists in universities and institutes around the world.

“On 30 April 1993, CERN made the source code of WorldWideWeb available on a royalty-free basis,” the CERN said, and “the software was free for anyone to use, and remains so today.” By late 1993, the WorldWideWeb (also referred to as W3 or “the web”) accounted for 1 percent of internet traffic, about 500 websites, it said. There are now an estimated 630 million websites online.

To celebrate this anniversary, CERN is starting a project to restore the first website and “to preserve the digital assets that are associated with the birth of the web.” The project is a travel back in time and aims restoring the first URL, and looking at the first web servers at CERN to “see what assets from them we can preserve and share.”

The ultimate goal of the project, according to CERN, is to “make http://info.cern.ch - the first web address – a destination that reflects the story of the beginnings of the web for the benefit of future generations.”

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch

The International Trade Committee (INTA) of the European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution welcoming negotiations for a Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States (23 in favor, five against, one abstention). While most of the 198 amendments to the report of the rapporteur, the INTA Committee Chair Vital Moreira (Socialists and Democrats Group) were rejected by the majority, an amendment asking for the “exclusion of the cultural and audiovisual services, including those provided online” in the negotiation mandate was adopted.

Parliament officially has no role when it comes to deciding the mandate for the Commission as that is up to the Council of Trade Ministers of the EU member states. But Moreira said in a press conference after the 25 April vote that the decision marked the determination of Parliament to subject the TTIP to extra scrutiny.

What was new for a free trade agreement (FTA) negotiation was that the Commission would brief Parliament before and after each negotiation round. But Moreira also said he himself was opposed to redlining special sectors. “If we start to exclude chapters the other side will do that too,” he warned. Moreira added that the Plenary of the Parliament still could reverse that amendment.

French MEP Francoise Castex in an email said she was satisfied with the exclusion of audiovisual services, yet still feared a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA, which met strong public opposition in Europe), as an amendment to cut out “strong protection of IPR, including geographical indications” was rejected. The exclusion of intellectual property more generally was requested recently by a group of 38 non-governmental organisations.

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch

The German Parliament has held a first reading of [corrected] a joint motion against the growing trend of patent offices to grant patents on software programs. The resolution on “Secure Competition and Innovation in the software development,” obliges the German government to take steps to ensure that software is protected by copyright only and no additional patent protection is granted.

The joint motion is here [pdf].

The government also has to prevent damage to open-source projects from the race for patents, the resolution states. It follows a similar resolution from 2005 in which the Parliament also demanded the government to take measures that patent offices stayed in line with relevant provisions of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), the EU Directive 91/250 and German copyright law provisions all of which established that software as such could not be patented.

Yet despite these, over the years the situation has worsened, the German Parliament wrote, with the European Patent Office having granted up to tens of thousands of software patents and German courts favouring the practice in recent decisions.

The German government is now asked, among other things, to push for an evaluation of the patent office’s practice, and further clarify the non-patentability of software in any upcoming review of directives. Jimmy Schulz, one of the initiators of the motion, warned that trivial patents or patents harm small and medium-sized software developers. The Foundation for a Free Infrastructure welcomed the decision and called it a strong message and a call to action to EU Commissioner Michel Barnier.

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has launched a beta version of its website today, which aims to offer free public access to content of all libraries, universities, and museums in the United States.

The DPLA has partnered with a number of institutions such as the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Smithsonian Institution, the New York Public Library, and Harvard University to provide the digital content.

According to a press release, 2.4 million items will be available at the DPLA launch, including books, pictures, and manuscripts, along with several special exhibitions prepared by some of the DPLA partners. The DPLA can be accessed at http://dp.la/.

While the beta version boasts millions of items, increasing the content of the digital library may be a challenge for the DPLA. Under current US copyright law, the DPLA can only publish works 70 years past the author’s death without permission, meaning more recent works may be omitted from the portal. No mention has been made of how the DPLA will integrate this material. The site’s FAQ page, notes that many of the items available are already in the public domain.

The DPLA initiative was established by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society with financial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and others.

The launch was schedule to include two days of festivities at the Boston Public Library but the formal celebration was postponed as a result of the Boston Marathon bombings.

The number of candidates seeking to be the next director general of the World Trade Organization has dropped from nine down to five.

The results of the first round of cuts came after the WTO General Council chair met with all 159 WTO members, the WTO announced today.

The remaining candidates (not in order of popularity) are:

— Ms Mari Elka Pangestu (Indonesia)

— Mr Tim Groser (New Zealand)

— Mr Herminio Blanco (Mexico)

— Mr Taeho Bark (South Korea)

— Mr Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo (Brazil)

The next round of five-minute consultations with members about these five candidates will start next week. According to the WTO, they will run from 16-24 April. Three more candidates will be expected to withdraw after the second round.

Candidates who did not advance after the first round are:

— Mr Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen (Ghana)

— Ms Anabel González (Costa Rica)

— Ms Amina C. Mohamed (Kenya)

— Mr Ahmad Thougan Hindawi (Jordan)

The basis for selections was the preferences expressed by each WTO member in short consultations, and the candidates’ likelihood to ultimately gain consensus support.

“The results were clear and unambiguous, whether measured in terms of number of preferences received, or by breadth of support across geographic regions or across the generally recognized categories of Members – LDCs [least-developed countries], developing countries and developed countries,” the chair said, citing concerns in some quarters about the results.

The current chair of the General Council is Shahid Bashir (Pakistan). Outgoing Director General Pascal Lamy is from France.

Small traders and businesses facing barriers to moving goods across African borders now can send a mobile phone text message alert that could help resolve the problems more quickly.

The SMS tool was launched on 9 April in the Zambian capital of Lusaka by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), according to a report in TradeMark Southern Africa newsletter.

The tool is “particularly useful to smaller traders who may not have access to the established web-based reporting system when they encounter a problem at a border post,” the report said. “Now, they can simply send a sms, in any language, to a central administrator, who will then log it on the reporting system and forward it to one of the region’s focal points; people working in the private and public sector who are specifically tasked with addressing NTBs [non-tariff barriers]. This person can then contact the trader or the company for additional information and help resolve their problem.”

The SMS tool was funded by UKaid through the Trademark Southern Africa programme, and is part of an existing online system to log, monitor and eliminate non-tariff barriers.

According to the report, NTBs can include any regulations, policies, conditions, restrictions or specific requirements that make it difficult to move goods from one country to another, and corrupt, complex or lengthy customs procedures.

By Kelly Burke for Intellectual Property Watch

A significant gap remains in advanced and developing economies’ access to information technologies, according to the 2013 “Global Information Technology Report” released today by the World Economic Forum.

According to a World Economic Forum press release, the report concluded that “national policies in some developing economies are failing to translate ICT investment into tangible benefits in terms of competitiveness, development and employment.”

This year’s report ranked 144 global economies on their ability to take advantage of digital infrastructure and content to increase economic growth and well-being.

Finland, Singapore, and Sweden topped the report’s Networked Readiness Index, followed by the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Strong intellectual property protection was cited as a reason for Singapore’s continued high placement on the index.

Despite a small jump in the rankings from 2012, BRICS economies continue to place low on the index: Brazil (60th), Russia (54th), India (68th), China (58th), and South Africa (70th). China’s low placement was attributed, in part, to “questionable intellectual property protection” and “institutional framework that stifles entrepreneurship and innovation.”

Additionally, the report found that while efforts have been made in Latin America and the Caribbean to develop and upgrade information technology infrastructure, the regions still face connectivity challenges.

The report is based on a four key criteria in assessing the readiness of countries to fully leverage information and communications technology (ICT), which include:  ICT infrastructure and cost of access; uptake and use of ICT among governments, business and individuals; political and regulatory framework; and economic and social impacts accruing from ICT.

The full 2013 report can be found here.

Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) Commissioner Young-min Kim has joined military leaders and patent attorneys in signing a “Working agreement for the building of a military intellectual property (IP) ecosystem.” A key aim is to avoid high-cost private-sector patent monopolies on military R&D.

The KIPO Commissioner was joined by the Korea Army (chief of staff, General Jung-hwanCho), Korea Air Force (chief of staff, General Ilhwan Sung), and the Korea Patent Attorneys Association (President Dong-yeol Yun), at the Korean Army and Air Force headquarters in Gyeryongdae, South Chungcheong, on 8 April, KIPO said in a press release. The measure is “a follow-up to the agreement on the necessity to raise awareness of IP among military personnel and cultivate their ability to create IPs,” it said.

KIPO said that a lack of IP management in the Korean military has led to private companies having exclusively registered patents based on military research and development. The companies have exercised their monopoly rights which raised production prices, making the goods more expensive.

“To ensure the justifiable return of rights for the military’s R&D outcomes and problematic patents, as well as to retrieve unfair profits, the need to systematically manage the military’s IP was acknowledged,” it said. “For this, the Korea Army established an organization to exclusively manage and create IPs in June last year and enacted its ‘Regulations on managing IP rights.’ The Korea Air Force is currently working to establish its own organization responsible for managing IPs.”

The army and air force will use patent attorneys to improve the expertise of these IP management organisations.

KIPO will give access to the army and air force to its online educational resources and training, and plans to expand IP knowledge training to general military personnel.

Other plans include developing a system to “manage and compensate military employees’ inventions and hold invention contests for military personnel, which can help improve IP creation and usage,” it said.

The working agreement is aimed at expanding the scope of cooperation among KIPO, the Korea Army and Air Force, and the Korea Patent Attorneys Association, the release said.

An alternative South African bill on the protection of traditional knowledge has been published in the official Government Gazette, and it would create a new system of intellectual property right specific to TK, according to South Africa experts.

The full text of the bill is available here [pdf].

“This Bill is based on the Protection of TK Bill drafted by the incumbent of the Stellenbosch Chair of IP Law (CIP), Prof Owen Dean, and was tabled in Parliament by Dr Wilmot James earlier this year amid widespread and serious criticism of Government’s current attempt at protecting TK through the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill (the old TK Bill),” Prof. Cobus Jooste of Stellenbosch Universiity said in a blog post.

“Wilmot’s Bill will establish a bespoke TK system, customised to the unique and widely divergent demographic of the South African population and capable of actually protecting TK and financially benefitting the indigenous communities from whence it hails,” Jooste wrote. “”n addition, Wilmot’s Bill proposes a sui generis approach to protection of sui generis expressions of intellectual endeavour.”

A fuller explanation of the bill was recently published in the Intellectual Property Watch Inside Views column here.

Research from the University of Melbourne has found that patents may be keeping pharmaceuticals expensive in Australia, but said that most of the patents are being taken out by companies that are not the originators of the drugs.

The study attempts to counter concern that pharmaceutical companies are inappropriately extending their monopoly position by “evergreening” blockbuster drugs, in a misuse of the patent system. The study claims to have studied 15 of the costliest drugs in Australia over the last 20 years. They found an average of nearly 50 patents per drug, and three-quarters of these owned by companies other than the originators.

“The 15 drugs in our study cost the country more than $17 billion over two decades. There are suspicions that abusive patenting by the big pharmaceutical companies is keeping that cost high. Our research shows that patenting by generic manufacturers and other players may be just as important.”

According to the study, the research was funded by the Australian Research Council, as “Discovery Project DP0987570, Chief Investigators: AF Christie, DM Studdert, P McIntyre, C Dent. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.” [corrected]

The study is available here.

By Rachel Marusak Hermann for Intellectual Property Watch

During the recent Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED) Colloquium 2013, participants highlighted the value of research and development in supporting public health and the importance of building self-reliance for countries through government investment, according to organisers. Some of the themes discussed during the event will be included in a report on public health policy, which will be published in The Lancet later this year.

Twenty years after the release of the World Bank’s Report on “Investing in Health” and the founding of COHRED, policy experts, researchers, industry leaders, and public health advocates gathered in Geneva from 26-27 March at the COHRED Colloquium 2013 to discuss the contributions of research for health and how to gather momentum for future investment to support health and development in low- and middle-income countries.

Although the meeting, described by organisers as an “un-conference,” was not aiming at consensus, a few key themes emerged. Participants widely agreed that countries should increase their own investments in research for health to attract donor funding and ensure fairer collaboration. Additionally, in the context of the global economic crisis, participants also took note of an emerging trend among donors toward implementation research, which looks at how to effectively translate findings into practice, and suggested that governments should do the same.

“With less funding available, governments increasingly have to justify additional spending on health research, show the value of investment and increase efficiency,” Danny Edwards, a COHRED policy analyst, told Intellectual Property Watch. “There is an increasing call to look at the knowledge and technology interventions we already have, and invest in research to examine why they are or not working, and focus on optimising them.”

These topics and other colloquium themes will feed into a report on current and future public health policies, which will be published in The Lancet in December 2013.

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch

Brand owners that have applied with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for their brand’s top level domain (TLD) are seeking to create their own constituency group.

A third of the names applied for in the ongoing application process are brand TLDs, trademark lawyer Phil Sheppard said during a meeting with ICANN’s government constituency group, called the Government Advisory Committee (GAC).

The brand owners would like to get their own registry model, based on their special business model. As all second-level domains would be under the control of the brand owner, they hope for a more lightweight model, with a reduced set of obligations, because they are not open registries and therefore less prone to fraud.

They also want priority when it comes to negotiating registry contracts with ICANN. Many things in the ICANN registry contract would be superfluous for brand TLDs.

“We need a new registry agreement,” said Jay Scott Eveans, head of Global Brand Domains & Copyright at Yahoo! Inc. The Brand Registry Constituency would allow brand owners to have joint contract negotiations with ICANN.

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch

In an effort to improve internationalisation, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will open hubs in Singapore and Istanbul, to serve the Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa respectively. ICANN’s headquarters in Los Angeles will become the hub serving the Americas.

The hubs shall share responsibilities for all aspects of ICANN work, CEO Fadi Chehade said at the 46th ICANN meeting in Beijing.

ICANN leadership would work from the new hubs, and he himself would rotate for a year. In order to shift ICANN’s “centre of gravity” away from the United States, ICANN also will establish local ICANN engagement centres, with the first such centre to be established in Beijing. Not going to China would lead ICANN to lose some of its legitimacy, Chehade said.

Observers interpreted the move partly as a reaction to the tensions in the international community over internet governance, and applauded the Chehade’s promotion of the multi-stakeholder model. Yet at the meeting unfolding in Beijing, Chehade´s practical support for that model was questioned by stakeholders pointing to the last-minute and poorly consulted additions to the much-debated application process for new generic top-level domains (TLDs) under ICANN.

By Kelly Burke for Intellectual Property Watch

The Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL), the French privacy body, said this week in a statement that it will take legal action against Google after the search engine failed to implement changes to its privacy policies. They were joined by data protection agencies from five other European countries.

Organisations in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom agreed to take joint action, which may involve an investigation and possible fines. Each of the six European states bringing legal action against Google will have to make its own decision on how to handle perceived violations.

In March 2012, Google merged 60 separate privacy policies from around the world into one universal procedure. European Union data regulators became concerned that the revised policy violated the European Data Protection Directive (95/46/CE). After an investigation concluded in October 2012, CNIL “asked Google to comply with their recommendations within four months” but did not see implementation of “any significant compliance measures” by Google, the statement said.

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) also issued a statement confirming it had opened an investigation to evaluate whether Google’s policy complies with the country’s Data Protection Act.

By Rachel Marusak Hermann for Intellectual Property Watch

Another step toward launching negotiations on a European Union-United States trade agreement has been made as the Office of the US Trade Representative filed a request for comments on the deal and announced a forthcoming public hearing.

In what would be the biggest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement between the EU and US is progressing on both sides of the Atlantic as governments do their legal due diligence before opening negotiations. Most recently, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published a request for public comments on US interests and priorities, a requirement under the 1974 Trade Act.

Interested parties in the US have until 10 May to provide their written comments or request to make a statement during a public hearing, which will be held 29-30 May. The request invites comments on a range of topics including “relevant trade-related intellectual property rights issues that should be raised with the EU”.

IP matters will certainly be a key element of a future arrangement as noted in the US-EU High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth (HLWG) Report, which recommended that a comprehensive agreement could boost economic growth for trade partners. According to the report, both sides are “committed to maintaining and promoting a high level of intellectual property protection, including enforcement” and would “enhance” their work on these issues.

Public health advocates have already raised concerns about the potential impact of an EU-US free trade agreement on issues such as biomedical research and new medicines, as reported by Intellectual Property Watch here.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the European Commission also has made progress on the deal, requesting the go-ahead from member states on 12 March and releasing an impact assessment on future trade relations and a study on the potential effects of the EU-US TTIP.

By Kelly Burke for Intellectual Property Watch

The Second United States Circuit Court of Appeals today determined that online live television broadcasting service Aereo doesn’t violate US copyright law, upholding a lower court ruling. Aereo is a cloud computing-based service in New York City.

In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court relied, in part, on a 2008 Second US Circuit decision in which judges found that Cablevision System Corp.’s digital video recorder did not violate copyright law by copying and storing programs for each customer’s use.

Aereo’s technology allows subscribers to view live broadcast content and record it for later viewing. It is able to provide this service by leasing individual remote antennas to each user. This distinguishes Aereo from purely internet-based streaming services.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) filed an amicus brief [pdf] in the Aereo case, asking that the lower court ruling be upheld. In the brief, CCIA largely cited the previous Cablevision decision as the reason for the court to uphold the ruling.

“This case was not just about broadcast television; it was a test of the legitimacy of the cloud computing industry,” CCIA President & CEO Ed Black said. “Today, the Second Circuit agreed with us that users should be able to access their own, lawfully-acquired content in the cloud without the fear of being branded pirates.”

Digital rights advocacy group Public Knowledge also applauded the court’s decision here.

By Kelly Burke for Intellectual Property Watch

The government of Singapore today revealed a set of initiatives it plans to implement over the next decade to further develop the country as an intellectual property hub.

The plan was formulated by an IP steering committee convened by the government. Over 200 IP professionals from 100 local and foreign companies and organisations were consulted to create the strategy.

According to the report, Singapore should aim to excel in three main areas: IP transactions and management, quality IP filings, and IP dispute resolution. In order to achieve these outcomes, the committee has recommended 14 initiatives for implementation.

Recommendations included: establishing a centre of excellence for IP valuation; introducing an IP financing scheme, where the government partially underwrites the value of IP used as collateral; strengthening the capabilities of Singapore’s IP court to attract more IP litigation; encouraging more Asia-centric, multi-disciplinary IP research in Singapore; and collaborating with industries to establish a one-stop licensing platform.

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore will also invest S$50 million (US$40.3 million) to build up patent search and examination capabilities in tech areas considered to be strategically important to Singapore.

The 10-year strategy can be found here.

The Indian fair trade regulator has dismissed a complaint against biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences that alleged the company engaged in anti-competitive activities in the licensing of its anti-HIV drugs, according to the SpicyIP blog.

In the case, an order [pdf] issued by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) dated 5 March 2013 found “no prima facie case” against Gilead.

The public health advocates that filed the complaint raised objections against three licensing agreements —  including with the Medicines Patent Pool — which can be read in paragraph 10 of the order, according to SpicyIP. The blog said: “The gist of the challenge was that the licensing agreements would allegedly restrict the supply of AIDs drugs which would make the drugs expensive in India. According to the activists, such agreements were thus in violation of Section 3(1) of the Competition Act which prohibits any persons from entering into production agreements which cause an ‘appreciable adverse’ effect on competition in India. It was also alleged that Section 3(4) would be violated. This provision forbids certain agreements in the ‘productions chains in different markets’ if such agreement causes a likely ‘appreciable adverse’ effect on competition in India.”

The CCI rejected arguments made by public health advocates on the grounds that the Indian market had diverse competition among generic pharmaceutical companies.

For background on the case, see (IPW, Public Health, 28 June 2012).

By Kelly Burke for Intellectual Property Watch

Former United States Congressman Howard Berman, a California Democrat regarded as a strong proponent of intellectual property rights protection, has joined law firm Covington & Burling LLP’s global public policy and government affairs practice.

According to the announcement from Covington & Burling, Berman will join former US Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, in the law firm’s Washington DC office, which includes former US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; Stu Eizenstat, who served in three American presidential administrations in roles that included ambassador to the European Union; and former Deputy US Trade Representative John Veroneau. He will also work with the law firm’s public policy practice in Brussels.

Berman lost his bid for re-election in November 2012 when he was defeated by Democratic Representative Brad Sherman.

Berman formerly chaired the US House of Representatives Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet. Sometimes referred to as “the representative from Hollywood,” Berman won election to the California Assembly in 1972 from a district in the Hollywood Hills. He has also been an advocate for several entertainment industry issues.