UN General Assembly Committee Adopts Resolution On SciTech For Development With Nod To IP Rights 30/11/2017 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment A committee of the United Nations General Assembly this week adopted a resolution highlighting the importance of – and setting out member state tasks for – growing science and technology, including expansion of intellectual property rights and innovation tailored to countries’ development strategies.
European Commission Announces Guidance On Copyright Enforcement, SEP Licensing 29/11/2017 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments The European Commission today announced plans to ratchet up the fight against counterfeiting and piracy, and to introduce more clarity in licensing standard-essential patents (SEPs). The first involves guidance on the 2004 EU directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRED); the second recommendations for making the relationship between patent owners and technology users more “balanced and efficient.”
Must All Foreigners Online Comply With US Copyright Law? (Part 1 of 2) 29/11/2017 by Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment US copyright law is supposed to apply only within US borders, not to actions done in Poland. But when a company in Poland streamed copyrighted TV shows into the US, that infringed US copyrights, according to a US trial court. This decision will be upheld on appeal, experts widely expect. Such an appellate decision, however, could expand the reach of US copyright law to a problematic extent. It will be tricky to find infringement in this case without also extending US copyright law to any online content posted anywhere on the globe.
Expert Panel Recommends That The WHO Move Forward On Transparency And Delinkage 28/11/2017 by Guest contributor for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment On Monday, 27 November, the WHO published the recommendations of the overall programme review of the global strategy and plan of action on public, health innovation and intellectual property (EB142/14). The expert panel provided 33 recommendations which included 17 forward looking”high-priority actions” including on transparency and delinkage, writes Thiru Balasubramaniam.
WIPO Development And IP Committee This Week: Agenda Includes Flexibilities, Tech Transfer, SDGs, Studies 27/11/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Following a session in May hailed as the most positive in years, the World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property reconvenes this week. Among items to be discussed are a revised proposal by the African Group to convene a biennial international conference on IP and development, how to deal with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and recommendations of an independent review of the implementation of the 2007 WIPO Development Agenda Recommendations.
Get Prepared For A Passel Of EU Legislation On Copyright And Related Rights 21/11/2017 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments This week several committees in the European Parliament voted on a pile of copyright-related dossiers, and in some instances the steps taken were really small. But the issues include controversial aspects in the legislative drafts on copyright review, broadcasting content and digital content, such as an obligation for providers to monitor third party content, intermediary liability and website blocking.
Artist Resale Right Does Not Seem To Affect Art Market, Economic Study At WIPO Says 21/11/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments A few days after a Leonardo da Vinci painting shattered the record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at Christie’s auction house in New York, the question of resale right for visual artists was discussed at the World Intellectual Property Organization. According to researchers, the establishment of a resale right in a particular country, which benefits the artist when her work is resold at a much higher value, is likely to have no negative effects on the country’s art market. The United States and China, the two largest global art markets, have not implemented the resale right yet.
WIPO Committee Debates Future Of Copyright Exceptions, Will Keep Working On Broadcasting Text 21/11/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee last week sent back to the drawing board draft action plans provided by the secretariat on exceptions and limitations to copyright for specific actors such as educational institutions and libraries. Meanwhile, discussions on the rights of broadcasting organisations against signal theft and piracy are expected to give way to a new text on specific topics, to be produced by the end of the month, while topics such as the resale right did not make it to standing agenda items but remain on list of items to be discussed in the spring.
Studies Presented At WIPO To Better Understand Limitations To Copyright 17/11/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment With no consensus on conducting normative work at the World Intellectual Property Organization on the limitations to copyright for certain actors such as persons with disabilities, educational institutions, and museums, the committee on copyright had agreed on several studies so the issues are better understood. This week, several of those studies were presented to the committee and shed some further light on the issues.
New Proposal At WIPO On Exceptions To Broadcasting Rights 16/11/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments While World Intellectual Property Organization delegates held informal closed consultations at the beginning of this week on a potential treaty protecting rights of broadcasting organisations from signal theft and piracy, a group of Latin American countries has proposed language on limitations and exceptions to these rights.