Following Ambassador Trevor Clarke’s appointment at the World Intellectual Property Organization and departure from the Barbados delegation, Ambassador Karen Tan of Singapore will chair the World Trade Organization Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) “Special Sessions,” until February, according to a WTO source. The TRIPS Council special sessions are working on the […]

A North American hotel chain recently lost a case at the World Intellectual Property Organization against a critical workers’ union website it tried to silence through a trademark claim. A panellist under the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center ruled on 2 December that the union had a right to keep a website critical of the […]

The United States Patent and Trademark Office today announced a pilot programme to accelerate examination of some environmental technology patent applications to speed commercialisation. The US-oriented initiative was announced by US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who oversees the patent office, as an entry to the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen. The Obama administration has […]

The International Chamber of Commerce released its “Intellectual Property Guidelines for Business” in Spanish and Portuguese during a special session at the 1-3 December Fifth Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy in Cancun, Mexico. The IP guidelines “provide information to businesses on practical steps they can take to protect their own innovation and creativity […]

The United States House of Representatives Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee held a hearing on 17 November on the “Operation, Impact, and Future of the US Preference Programs.” Speakers noted how threatening to remove small economies from unilateral US trade benefit list helped persuade them to agree to US demands. Hearing speaker list and testimony […]

Intellectual Property Watch Director and Editor-in-Chief William New will chair the IP Law European Summit 2009 being held this week in Montreux, Switzerland. The 25-27 November event will include intellectual property and licensing counsel for companies and groups such as Airbus SAS, Daimler, KPN, Lafarge, L’Oréal, Microsoft, Motion Picture Association, Peugot Citroën, Research in Motion, […]

The Google Book settlement received an initial signal of approval by a US court yesterday, according to a book settlement website. A final settlement/fairness hearing should be held on 18 February 2010 before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, according to a document posted on the Google Book settlement website. […]

The 15-18 November Internet Governance Forum finished work yesterday, and the official press release and wrap-up notes have been circulated by the United Nations, which organises the annual talk shop. There is no single body governing the making of internet policy and the forum is barred from engaging in policymaking. According to the UN release, […]