Balancing Patents and Standards Seen As Key For Mobile Phone Industry 01/12/2006 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By William New Technology companies have long recognised the importance to their economic growth of patents and standards, but increasingly they are focusing on the intersection of the two in order to seek changes to the patent system, industry experts told an event at the World Intellectual Property Organization on 29 November. The presenters were Tim Frain, director of IPR in the regulatory affairs department of Nokia Corporation, and Paul Davey, director of intellectual property at the Vodafone Group. Both industry representatives encouraged government officials in the audience to consider legislative remedies to problems they perceive in patents interfering with standards related to technological innovation. Davey and Frain discussed concerns that some holding licenses for technology may not be willing to recognise the need for access to standard-related patents in order to ensure the interoperability of technologies. Frain argued that the current patent regime “may no longer be sufficient,” and suggested a legislative change might be necessary.
EU TV Without Frontiers Directive Still A Lobbyist Target But May End Up A ‘Soup Hen’ 22/11/2006 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch In the second week of December, the European Parliament will hear the first reading of the “modernised” Television Without Frontiers Directive (TVWF) that will stretch into the world of online content – hence to become the Audiovisual Media Directive. The directive is intended to adapt European Union-wide rules […]
Hamadoun Touré Of Mali Elected ITU Secretary-General 10/11/2006 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By William New Development and Internet governance issues may have gotten a boost at the United Nations International Telecommunication Union today as members elected Hamadoun Touré of Mali to be the next Secretary-General. Touré has been director of the ITU Telecommunications Development Bureau since 1999. In a third round of voting on 10 November, Touré […]
Developed Country Strategy On WIPO Development Agenda, Governance Revealed 07/11/2006 by Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen and William New The report from a September meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) developed country group reveals its behind-the-scenes strategy for handling a proposed development agenda at WIPO. The WIPO General Assembly decided in October to extend the discussions on a proposal for a development agenda, which […]
“Dynamic Coalitions,” The New Sword In Internet Governance Debates 05/11/2006 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment By William New ATHENS – The World Summit on the Information Society told the world to build “dynamic” coalitions to address problems related to the Internet, and this week, the world responded. At the four-day Internet Governance Forum here ending 2 November, seemingly more than a dozen coalitions emerged on every topic of concern related […]
ITU Candidates Tread Lightly On Internet Governance 03/11/2006 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The candidates for next week’s election to succeed UN International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi are not following his platform of drawing international pressure to change the US-centric Internet domain name system.
Copyrights, Knowledge Access, Democracy Debated At Internet Forum 01/11/2006 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment By William New ATHENS – Whether intellectual property rights protection is inhibiting the free flow of information was hotly debated at the Internet Governance Forum on 31 October. “Just about every aspect of the free flow of information is now hampered” by technologies, laws and other reasons, said Joichi Ito of Creative Commons. “Suddenly the […]
UN-led Conference Grills Corporations On Support For Restrictive Internet Regimes 31/10/2006 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By William New ATHENS – Participants in this week’s Internet Governance Forum here saw strong support for ensuring public access to knowledge as tough questions were put to technology corporations for their apparent support of restrictive government practices. But representatives of the corporations, including Cisco Systems, Google and Microsoft, held their own in the debate. […]
New Internet Governance Proposal Would Trim US Role, Boost Private Sector 31/10/2006 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By William New ATHENS – As hundreds of Internet practitioners and visionaries gathered here for a forum on governance of the Internet, two long-time stakeholders have issued an updated proposal aimed at defusing the biggest policy tensions by moving governance to the private sector and increasing international involvement. The proposal comes from Becky Burr, a […]
Online Content Among Many Issues At Internet Governance Forum 31/10/2006 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By William New ATHENS – The four-day Internet Governance Forum opened on 30 October by addressing many topics, among them the availability of content online. Content on the Internet will be addressed in a variety of ways this week, including ways to boost local content creation in developing countries, ways to protect intellectual property rights, […]