South Africa Draft Copyright Amendment Bill Published For Public Comment 28/07/2015 by Linda Daniels for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments The publication for public comment of the much-anticipated South African draft Copyright Amendment Bill has cautiously been welcomed by some stakeholders, who believe that parts of the draft are unworkable.
The TPP’s Reckless Proposals For Damages Will Have Negative Impact On Future Reform Of IPR Regimes 28/07/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch 13 Comments James Love writes: This week negotiators from a dozen countries are meeting to finalize the rules for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. When or if concluded, this massive regional trade agreement will set new standards for the grant of property rights in knowledge, and the enforcement of those rights. The TPP chapter on intellectual property covers all intellectual property types included in Part II of the WTO’s TRIPS agreement, plus some others, including not only patents, copyrights and trademarks, but also “undisclosed information”, test data for the registration of drugs, industrial designs, layout-designs of integrated circuits. The rules in the TPP are intended by the United States to become global norms, effectively replacing TRIPS. While there are plenty of issues in the TPP IP Chapter, this note only addresses one set of issues — those relating to the remedies for the infringement of intellectual property rights. The remedies include such topics as injunctions, damages, and the seizure or destruction of infringing goods.
Ukraine Open Access Initiative Roils Local Authors Seeking Copyright Protection 28/07/2015 by Eugene Gerden for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment It may be an open access initiative, but Ukrainian writers and authors are on the verge of massive protests, due to a recent initiative of the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) to conduct digitalisation and online publishing of all of the books and documents stored in the national archives and libraries.
Nairobi WTO Ministerial Conference Preparation On Track, Says Ambassador 27/07/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment “Membership is comfortable with the level of preparedness and what we have done as a country” to host the December trade ministerial, the Kenyan trade minister told press at the World Trade Organization today.
As TPP Ministers Meet, NGOs Make Urgent Push For Public Interest 27/07/2015 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Trade ministers negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement meet this week in Maui, Hawaii to try to finish the deal. Along with them are numerous public interest groups strenuously lobbying to steer the deal away from single-minded corporate interest.
Intellectual Property Law Under The Prism Of The Right To Culture 24/07/2015 by Jos̩phine De Ruyck for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment STRASBOURG, FRANCE РAlthough the right to science and culture has been enshrined in several international treaties, their exact implications in the intellectual property field have remained vague.
France Spearheads Push For Plain Packaging Of Tobacco Products 23/07/2015 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The country that made smoking cool is now taking steps to make it uncool. France this week organised what it defined as “the first international ministerial meeting” on plain packaging for tobacco products, gathering countries that support the public health measure aimed at discouraging tobacco use.
Coalition Asks WIPO To Follow Proposed Guidelines To Better Defend IP Rights 22/07/2015 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment An international coalition of intellectual property rights defenders wrote a letter to World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Francis Gurry yesterday providing suggested international guidelines to protect IP rights.
UK Proposes To Allow Designers To Mark Their Products With A Web Link 22/07/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The United Kingdom government is calling for evidence on a proposal to provide designers with an option to mark their products with a web link instead of stamping the product or attaching a label with registered design numbers to provide public notice of registered design rights.
Treaty On ‘Medicines Crime’ Not Best Response To Counterfeit/Substandard Medicines, Paper Says 22/07/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A recent paper by public health experts argues that a treaty on ‘medicines crime’ to combat counterfeit and substandard medicines may not be the best step forward. Rather, it proposes to form an international agreement to “ensure that all proven effective and necessary medicines are affordable, available, and of assured quality,” if the goal is to protect the interests of people and public health.