G8 Summit Strengthens IP Protection; May Undercut Compulsory Licensing 07/06/2007 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch, and Tove Gerhardsen The strengthening of intellectual property rights protection in “a new dialogue” between Group of 8 and emerging economies moderated by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the possible establishment of an “IPR Task Force focussing on anti-counterfeiting and piracy” are among decisions […]
Germany Discusses Digital Age Licensing Model For Public Broadcasters 21/05/2007 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch German public broadcasters at a recent hearing of Germany’s Supreme Court warned against state interference with the funding of their programmes. The appeal by Germany’s large public broadcasting organisations ARD, ZDF and radio broadcaster “Deutschlandfunk” to the highest German court is primarily about money. But it may result […]
Industry: Criminal Checks Needed For Tasting, Kiting, Spying 03/05/2007 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch International organisations should step in to prevent the “tasting,” “kiting” and “spying” related to Internet domain names, say representatives from the US telecommunications and trademark industries. These new activities are dramatically altering online commerce and impacting legitimate businesses, and the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), World Intellectual […]
Rights, Content Issues May Complicate Internet Domain Name Expansion 02/04/2007 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch LISBON – The rejection of the .xxx top-level domain by the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) last week in Lisbon was a major highlight of the meeting of the private-sector domain name system technical body, showing its slide into the judgment of […]
EU Parliament: Competition Yes, But No ‘Big Bang’ For Collective Rights 14/03/2007 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch The European Parliament this week passed a resolution on cross-border collective rights management asking for a framework directive at the EU level that would encourage more competition. But parliamentary members of the bigger political party groups warned against a “big bang” of unrestricted competition and an overly rapid […]
EU Enforcement Directive Stuck: What Is ‘Commercial Scale’ Infringement? 05/03/2007 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch For the third time since December, the European Parliament committee vote on an EU directive on criminal sanctions against infringers of intellectual property rights has been postponed. This is a signal that there are great difficulties with the text, say observers from non governmental organisations, who argue that the European Commission should kill it or rewrite it from scratch. But a compromise is near, according to the vice chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market (JURI), Rainer Wieland (EPP).
Internet Governance Forum: Is It More Than Talk? 15/02/2007 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Multi-stakeholder “dynamic coalitions” of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) are pushing to have privacy, intellectual property, open standards and freedom of expression on the agenda of the second meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil next autumn. At a 13 February IGF stocktaking meeting in Geneva, several of […]
Midem: Window Of Opportunity Closing For Digital Rights Management 25/01/2007 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch CANNES – The entertainment industry may have made too many mistakes for digital rights management to become the main model of remuneration in digital sales business models, said experts at the music fair Midem this week in Cannes and its “policy sister” MidemNet Forum last weekend. Paul Brindley, […]
Germany Still Seeking Balance In Copyright Policy 04/12/2006 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch A series of five recent hearings in the Justice Committee of the German Parliament have revealed deep rifts over the second part of Germany’s copyright law reform. This so-called “second basket” deals with adaptations of copyright law to the digital age after a “first basket” from 2003 aimed […]
EU TV Without Frontiers Directive Still A Lobbyist Target But May End Up A ‘Soup Hen’ 22/11/2006 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch In the second week of December, the European Parliament will hear the first reading of the “modernised” Television Without Frontiers Directive (TVWF) that will stretch into the world of online content – hence to become the Audiovisual Media Directive. The directive is intended to adapt European Union-wide rules […]