WIPO Assembly Approves New Budget Unlocking Gears Of Change 12/12/2008 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By William New The member governments of the World Intellectual Property Organization gave their first vote of confidence for the secretariat’s plans to realign the UN organisation Friday as they unanimously approved a reworked budget for 2008-2009. The approval came in an extraordinary one-day General Assembly on 12 December that ended quickly after the Program […]
New WIPO Director’s Revised Budget On Track To Passage After Debate 11/12/2008 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment [Editor’s Note: Final formal committee-level approval of the Program and Budget Committee recommendations took place on Friday morning.] By William New The powerful World Intellectual Property Organization Program and Budget Committee on Thursday tacitly approved a new one-year budget funding the start of a strategic organisational realignment, with clarifications to reflect concerns of developing countries […]
Generic Drugmakers, Activists Praise Lamy; Gurry Defends ‘Respect’ For IP 11/12/2008 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By William New Generic pharmaceutical producers have grown in importance in recent years despite or because of intellectual property rights, and at their annual meeting this week in Geneva they attracted the leaders of the primary intergovernmental institutions engaged in IP rights policy. Generic industry representatives and access to medicines activists praised an opening speech […]
Budget Debates Arise Again At WIPO; Development Fears Run High 10/12/2008 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By William New The World Intellectual Property Organization could be considered a financial stalwart of the United Nations system, self-funding and usually running large positive balances. But recent years have seen the rise in influence of developing countries at WIPO, and this week those countries are calling on the organisation’s new leadership to ensure their […]
Lamy Challenges Discontented WTO Members To Use TRIPS Public Health Review 09/12/2008 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By William New Confronted with longstanding assertions that World Trade Organization rules intended to bring greater access to medicines to poor countries are not working, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said Tuesday discontented members should use the annual review of those rules if they have a complaint. “It is precisely to address these kinds of […]
Interview With Ray Beckerman, Defender Against RIAA 03/12/2008 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Ray Beckerman is a commercial litigator and internet law attorney who has represented defendants that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has accused of music file sharing in copyright infringement lawsuits in the United States. Beckerman is an outspoken critic against the RIAA and recording companies EMI, SONY BMG, Warner Brothers, and affiliates’ five-year […]
Librarians Take The Copyright Battleground In Developing Countries 26/11/2008 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments By William New CHISINAU, MOLDOVA – Creativity may not be the first thing that comes to mind when travelling through the kilometres of mostly grey, Soviet-era cement-block buildings outlying the capital of Moldova, often referred to as Europe’s poorest state. But at its centre, this small, transition economy is going through an exercise being repeated […]
Questions Raised About Google Library Project’s Impact On Knowledge Access 26/11/2008 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment By William New What has been heralded as a breakthrough in the digitisation of human knowledge is also raising questions about how most humans will access that knowledge, according to an expert in copyright and the public interest. Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, recently raised concerns about Google’s new […]
Egyptian Goddess Puts Teeth Back In US Industrial Design Rights 12/11/2008 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch For the past two decades, industrial design rights have received little respect in the United States. But no longer. The recent court ruling in Egyptian Goddess, Inc v Swisa, Inc has dramatically strengthened industrial design rights in the US, bringing the country’s protections for these rights back into line with international standards, according to many experts.
Impact Of The Probable Incorporation Of An Additional Step (Of Public Interest) In Indian Injunction Jurisprudence 10/11/2008 by Intellectual Property Watch 8 Comments By Swarup Kumar From the content of the recently decided Roche v Cipla 2008 (37) PTC 71(Del) interim order issued by Justice S. Ravinder Bhatt of Delhi High Court, it appears that an additional step, i.e., a fourth step of public interest – over and above the three-step test laid down in historic judgment in […]