Top-Level Domain .Africa Becomes Object Of Bitter Fight 03/11/2012 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments A dispute over the .africa regional geographic top-level internet domain (TLD) may have escalated. The Kenya-based DotConnectAfrica trust (with headquarters in Mauritius) in a press release this week applauded the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for granting a change request to their application. DotConnectAfrica by mistake had applied for .dotafrica instead of .africa in its application during the new gTLD process in April.
WTO IT Agreement Committee Reports Progress, Reservations 02/11/2012 by Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments A group of countries working to expand the World Trade Organization Information Technology Agreement (ITA) showed progress this week, but some continued to have reservations, the WTO reported.
US Makes New Exemptions To Digital Millennium Copyright Act Provision 01/11/2012 by Maricel Estavillo for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The United States has made new exemptions to a provision in its copyright law that prohibits the circumvention of technological measures to gain access to protected digital works.
In Search of Relevance, Not Solutions: The Truth About ITU’s ‘Patent Roundtable’ 24/10/2012 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments Meetings at UN agencies in Geneva are not often mainstream news – but given the high profile nature of legal disputes about smartphone and tablet technology taking place around the world, a meeting to discuss an arcane area of patent policy – the ITU Patent Roundtable – was widely covered, as it brought together some of the titans of the mobile and internet industry plus government regulators and standards bodies.
Governments Weigh Options On New Top-Level Domains At ICANN 23/10/2012 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Governments have been considering their options with regard to intervening against applications for new generic top level domains, which are currently being processed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
WIPO Members Inch Toward Visually Impaired Treaty 19/10/2012 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments After three days of mostly informal discussions and a set of succeeding draft texts of what could become a treaty for visually impaired persons, World Intellectual Property Organization members tonight closed discussions with yet another version of the text showing agreement in some areas and work still to be done.
Sources: European Telecom Operators’ Proposals Run Aground At WCIT 19/10/2012 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch European Telecommunications and Network Operators (ETNO) proposals for accounting changes between internet providers – namely a “sender-party-pays regime” and provisions to foster end-to-end quality of service management on the net – did not make it into the joint proposal of Greater Europe for the World Conference on Telecommunication […]
US Court Rules On Fair Use For Blind Users, Digitisation, Amid Treaty Talks 19/10/2012 by Maricel Estavillo for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Coinciding with the marathon negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization for a potential treaty for the visually-impaired persons, a United States court handed down a ruling this month that goes in favour of copyright exceptions in the digitisation of books for the purposes of preservation, text search and access for the blind.
Subscriber Update: New Document On Visually Impaired Treaty At WIPO 19/10/2012 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A new working document on an international instrument on copyright limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons being negotiated at the World Intellectual Property Organization has been issued this morning. The document is below.
Pro-Music Re-Launched After Nine Years 18/10/2012 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Pro-Music, the international alliance of various stakeholders in the music industry promoting the use of legal services on the internet, has moved to give its website a facelift, nine years after it was launched back in 2003.