Battle Rages Over WIPO DG As Staff Dissents, Africa Cries Racism 17/10/2007 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 16 Comments By William New Hundreds of employees at the World Intellectual Property Organization, a prominent United Nations agency, have signed a petition calling on WIPO Director General Kamil Idris to put the organisation’s interests before his own in addressing allegations that he misrepresented his age on official documents and possibly engaged in other untoward activities. Idris […]
OECD Calibrates Role In Fast-Changing Internet Society 15/10/2007 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment OTTAWA – The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris-based club of 30 of the world’s largest economies, is moving fast to keep up with the newest trend on the Internet: user-generated content. Referred to generally as ‘Web 2.0’, this trend includes collaboratively developed websites such as Wikipedia and YouTube, social networking platforms such […]
Open Letter From Staff To The Director General Of WIPO 08/10/2007 by Intellectual Property Watch 16 Comments Pour la version française, cliquer ici Where are you Director General? For the first time in WIPO’s history, the Assemblies were unable to agree on the adoption of the budget of the Organization. For the first time, the member states had to have recourse to a fratricidal vote on these questions and thereby to abandon […]
Switzerland Urges Immediate Search For New WIPO Director General 05/10/2007 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments By William New Switzerland, in its role as host country of the World Intellectual Property Organization, this week issued a call for an immediate search for a new leader of the organisation in order to address concerns of mismanagement and lack of credibility. In an unusually blunt press statement, the Swiss government expressed dissatisfaction with […]
WIPO Assembly Ends In Deadlock Over Budget, Director General 04/10/2007 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment By William New The annual General Assemblies of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization ended in a stalemate Wednesday with no approval of a new budget or proposed cuts in patent fees and no decision on the fate of embattled Director General Kamil Idris, according to early reports from some participants. “It was a catastrophe,” […]
US Courts Swinging Toward Higher Threshold For Patentability 04/10/2007 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch For years, the United States has appeared unusually generous towards patent applicants. The country has extended legal protection to many inventions, such as business methods, that typically are not patentable in Europe and other parts of the world. Now, however, America appears to be back-pedalling. Two recent court rulings in the United States have significantly cut back on the types of inventions that can patented in the country. And these decisions may be just the beginning. More court-imposed restrictions may be coming soon, according to some experts.
Debate On Director General Reaches Breaking Point 02/10/2007 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By William New Governments of the World Intellectual Property Organization on Tuesday appeared to be near a breaking point on the effort by developed countries to discuss possible improprieties and mismanagement by the WIPO director general and their effort to get him to resign. The issue has clouded the entire 24 September to 3 October […]
Les accords bilatéraux entre l’UE et les pays en développement suscitent des inquiétudes 02/10/2007 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Par David Cronin pour Intellectual Property Watch BRUXELLES – L’inquiétude grandit en Europe et dans les pays en développement concernant la possibilité qu’un certain nombre d’accords de libre échange qui devraient être signés dans le courant de l’année contienne des règles excessivement sévères sur la propriété intellectuelle. La Commission Européenne, l’organe exécutif de l’Union Européenne, […]
The Idris Dilemma And The WIPO Development Agenda 02/10/2007 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Sisule F. Musungu On Friday, 28th September 2007 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assembly finally adopted a development agenda for WIPO. The Assembly adopted a set of 45 proposals under six clusters, namely: technical assistance and capacity building; norm-setting, flexibilities and public domain; technology transfer, ICTs and access to knowledge; assessment, evaluation […]
Open Letter to WIPO Director General Kamil Idris 01/10/2007 by Intellectual Property Watch 6 Comments English version here De Salvatore Di Palma, ex Directeur adjoint, OMPI 1er octobre 2007 Lettre ouverte au Directeur général Kamil Idris C’est avec un grand intérêt que j’ai pris connaissance du « Rapport de Revue Interne concernant l’OMPI » de Ernst & Young ainsi que du rapport du Corps commun d’inspection des Nations Unies du […]