EUIPO Study Looks At State Of IPR Infringement In The EU 06/06/2018 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A report published today by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) deplores rising volume of intellectual property rights infringement in both immaterial goods and digital content and warns against the economic effects for the Union.
In Defense Of Fair Use 04/06/2018 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Copyright law, to be sustainable, calls for a balance. Under copyright law, creators receive exclusive rights to allow or prevent others from making copies of their works for a limited time as an incentive to create. Users receive benefits from the results of the creator’s labor, perhaps through watching, reading or listening to those results. Users may also benefit pursuant to a license to use the works in other ways. Eventually the works fall into the public domain, allowing further reuse by everyone. Recent litigation involving a graffiti artist and a purveyor of sportswear shows how sometimes a flexible mechanism for balancing the copyright entitlements of creators and users makes sense, writes Roy Kaufman.
WIPO Edges Toward High-Level Meeting To Finish Treaty On IP Rights For Broadcasters 04/06/2018 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee last week stepped back from a lunge toward a long-debated treaty to protect intellectual property rights of broadcasters, but still concluded with a recommendation for the full WIPO membership to consider taking the negotiation to the final political level later this year.
European Patent Office Discusses Patenting Artificial Intelligence 01/06/2018 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment MUNICH — United States and Chinese patent practitioners this week called for considerations to change patent legislation and allow patenting algorithms in the future. They spoke at a 30 May conference of the European Patent Office in Munich on “Patenting Artificial Intelligence.”
Civil Society Issues Call For Action On Draft WIPO Copyright Exceptions 31/05/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments This week the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee is looking at exceptions and limitations to copyright. A range of stakeholders with opposing views delivered long statements explaining their positions. Some proponents of mandatory international limitations and exceptions for certain actors cited the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals inscribing equitable quality education as a right. Others, like publishers’ associations, said the current international system provides ample possibilities to devise national exceptions and limitations.
Draft Broadcast Treaty Takes Restrictive Approach To Limitations And Exceptions 31/05/2018 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Sean Flynn writes: At this week’s meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, there was renewed attention to the limitations and exceptions provisions of a proposed treaty for broadcast organizations. Unfortunately, the result of that attention was to make the current draft more restrictive for the adoption of exceptions than prior drafts, and more restrictive than are present copyright treaties or the than the Rome Convention the broadcast treaty seeks to update.
Broadcasting Treaty Moving At WIPO, Copyright Exceptions For Libraries Not 31/05/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Positive momentum seems to have been found on a potential global treaty to protect broadcasting organisations as delegates moved towards convergence on some language this week at the World Intellectual Property Organization. Meanwhile, copyright exceptions for actors like libraries and research institutions is meeting the same strong opposition from some, and informal consultations and studies are being set out by the committee chair over the next 18 months, over concerns of delay.
‘Every Great Science Discovery, Invention, Is The Stuff Of Dreams, Not The Stuff Of Reason’: Interview With David Hanson Of Hanson Robotics 29/05/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Sophia, the well-known human-like robot who acquired citizenship in Saudi Arabia, was at the Artificial Intelligence for Good Global Summit which took place earlier this month in Geneva. Her creator, David Hanson, also CEO and founder of Hanson Robotics, gave an interview to Intellectual Property Watch’s Catherine Saez and explained his philosophy about intellectual property, the needed spark of interest in human-like robots, data collection, and innovation. Hanson is also lead designer and inventor of key technologies including Frubber nanotech, facial expressions and AI software. He is former Walt Disney Imagineering designer, and recipient of numerous awards. A video interview about Sophia is embedded in this text.
IP Rights Through Two Lenses At Next Week’s TRIPS Council: Improving Lives, Competition Law 29/05/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Next week, the World Trade Organization intellectual property committee is invited to discuss two distinct aspects of intellectual property protection. One group of countries is proposing to explore the value of IP and its role in improving lives in a persistent agenda item on IP and innovation. Another group of countries is pushing for a more recent agenda on IP and the public interest and next week is suggesting to discuss how to use competition laws against the abuse of IP rights.
Controversy Hides Within US Copyright Bill 29/05/2018 by Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment In a time when partisanship runs wild in the USA and the country’s political parties can’t seem to agree on anything, the Music Modernization Act is exceptional. The MMA passed the House of Representatives on 25 April with unanimous support. And for good reason. Almost all the major stakeholders back this legislation, which will bring some badly needed changes to copyright law’s treatment of music streaming. But wrapped in the MMA is a previously separate bill – the CLASSICS Act – that has been attacked by many copyright law experts, is opposed by many librarians and archivists, and runs counter to policy previously endorsed by the US Copyright Office.