At WIPO, Former South Africa Judge Calls For Balance In IP Rights Enforcement 24/11/2015 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Alongside this week’s meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on enforcement, an event featured a former South African Supreme Court judge presenting his views on IP enforcement. There is a need to go for the “big fish,” he said, and to bring balance in sanctions and enforcement procedures. He also described courts as finding that exceptions to copyright are a public right.
New Industry Coalition To Promote Fair Standards In Licensing 19/11/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A group of companies launched the Fair Standards Alliance this week in Brussels, aimed at ensuring licensing of standard-essential patents is done on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. This reflects an industry trend toward clarifying the meaning of FRAND to help boost use of patents included in standards.
WHO Director Questions IP Rights, Drug Prices, Industry Influence 12/11/2015 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Saying she could speak more freely outside of the World Health Organization, WHO Director General Margaret Chan today told a gathering of think tank representatives at the Graduate Institute of Geneva that intellectual property rights may be unfairly driving up drug prices and that industry lobbying may be interfering with governments’ efforts to take action on behalf of their citizens’ public health.
Users, Governments Give Views On Internet Governance Going Forward 10/11/2015 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment As governments at the United Nations negotiate outcome documents for the 10 year review of the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the rest of the stakeholders of the global internet are fighting for a voice, especially users. A recent event alongside the WSIS talks explored the user perspective, and discussed the future of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the annual meeting taking place this week in Brazil.
New WIPO Group B Coordinator; MPP Adds Members To Board 06/11/2015 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment October saw a flurry of changes in law offices in the United States. In Geneva, the coordination for Group B developed countries at the World Intellectual Property Organization changed hands, and the Medicines Patent Pool added four members to its Governance Board.
TPP Text Is Out, Finally, With Lots Of Bilateral Specialities 06/11/2015 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch and William New Leave a Comment Four weeks after the finalisation of the agreement, the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was finally released by the United States and other partners of the first of the regional mega-trade deals. The parties hurried to underline the success of the negotiations, but early reactions were deeply divided.
Court Orders USTR To Justify Industry Advisor Confidentiality In TPP 29/10/2015 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) next week is expected to provide justification for withholding from a Freedom of Information Act request the communications with its industry advisors as confidential commercial or financial information. The case involves communications in the lead-up to completion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, and could set a precedent for exemptions of communications with lobbyists.
WSIS+10 Explained: Interview With Constance Bommelaer, Internet Society 22/10/2015 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment On 15-16 December 2015, government officials from more than 190 countries will meet in New York to discuss the future of the internet. They will review progress made in achieving the goals set forth 10 years ago at the Tunis World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) meeting. The aptly named WSIS+10 Review is a pivotal point in determining the fate of the open internet – discussions at the review can influence how the internet is governed for the next decade, as well as whether the internet will continue as a means of economic development and opportunity for the global economy. Alongside this week’s WSIS+10 stakeholder meetings at the UN, Intellectual Property Watch’s William New sat down with the Senior Director of Global Internet Policy at the Internet Society, Constance Bommelaer, to discuss what to expect in New York and the impact this meeting will have on the future of the internet.
Infojustice.org: Google Books And Feist-y Fair Use 20/10/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments From infojustice.org: Judge Pierre Leval’s opinion [on 16 October] in the Google Books case offers another fascinating glimpse into the richness of his thinking about the concept of fair use. Although the outcome in Google Books (Google wins, duh) was obvious to anyone whose paycheck didn’t depend on their believing otherwise, the discussion that gets us there sheds light on a host of hot fair use topics in ways that courts and copyright wonks will be citing and unpacking for years to come.
Health Groups Urge EU Commission To Safeguard Access To Medicines In Developing Countries 14/10/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Health Action International (HAI) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF – Doctors without Borders) today issued a joint report on European Union commitments to safeguard access to medicines. Their report [pdf] comes in the context of the revision of the European Union’s trade and investment policy, released today.