US Trade Team Responds To Protectionist Pressure In Reports On Trading Partners31/03/2009 by William New and Dirshaye Abate for Intellectual Property Watch 1 CommentThe Obama administration’s new trade team has quickly come under pressure to focus on protecting United States interests, including enforcement of intellectual property rights, at a time when multilateral institutions urge governments to remain open for the sake of the global economy.
Industry Gets European Union Buy-In At Event Against Piracy, Counterfeiting30/03/2009 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a CommentThe European Commission this week will launch a forum for coordinating attacks against counterfeit and pirated goods, to be announced at a daylong event featuring representatives from a wide range of industries. No representatives of the public interest or consumers appear to be included in the event or related initiatives.
Germany Opts For ISP Filtering Of Child Pornography; NGOs Warn Of Unintended Impact30/03/2009 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 5 CommentsSeveral German ministries seem to be in a footrace to draft legal text for a filtering regime blocking child pornography from German users’ personal computers agreed by the government last week.
Strickling Nominated To Head US Telecom & Internet Agency30/03/2009 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a CommentThe Obama administration recently nominated Larry Strickling assistant secretary of Commerce for communications and information, a post which would make him head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The NTIA is responsible for the US government agreement overseeing the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is the technical coordinator of […]
US Commerce Secretary Locke On Patents30/03/2009 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 CommentNewly confirmed United States Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was asked some questions about patents during his nomination process in the Senate. The Commerce secretary oversees the US Patent and Trademark Office. Here are his responses [pdf], according to a Washington lobbying group.
WIPO Patent Committee Calls For Further Study, Consultations30/03/2009 by Kaitlin Mara, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a CommentFive new studies on select patent-related topics and informal, open-ended consultations on global issues are the key elements of future work for a World Intellectual Property Organization committee that wrapped up its meeting late Friday.
Videocast With Georg Greve On Software Patents30/03/2009 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 CommentsGeorg Greve of Free Software Foundation Europe makes the case that software fails a three-step test to determine patentability.
Is WIPO A Cybersquatter?30/03/2009 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a CommentThe academic Internet Governance Project reports that the World Intellectual Property Organization – a key arbitration body for global internet domain disputes – appears to have registered a domain name using a name trademarked by someone else three years earlier. WIPO registered the name patentscape.info in 2008, after the mark patentscape was obtained in 2006 […]
US Wrestles With Transparency As Europeans Urge Release Of ACTA Texts27/03/2009 by Kaitlin Mara, Intellectual Property Watch 5 CommentsThe parliaments of Sweden and the European Union are urging the European Union to make public all documentation related to a secretive global anti-counterfeiting treaty, while the United States has claimed the papers are a matter of national security and therefore a state secret. But now the US has decided to undertake a review of its transparency.
US Patent Reform Legislation Progressing; Committee To Reconvene Next Week26/03/2009 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 CommentThe committee of the United States Senate drafting legislation to reform the US patent system made little progress at a meeting Thursday, according to sources, but adopted a bipartisan amendment and scheduled to reconvene next week to continue work.
