Paper: Strict Plant Variety Protection In Africa Goes Beyond International Regulation 22/09/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A new paper by a Norwegian researcher finds that recent legislation efforts on plant variety protection in Africa go beyond the requirements of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).
Top US Lawmakers On Trade Urge Action On India’s Treatment Of IPRs 22/09/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The top members of US Congress and the Senate responsible for international trade issues today urged the Obama administration to push for changes to India’s handling of intellectual property rights and technology. The United States and India are preparing for high-level bilateral meetings. The elected officials’ positions appear to be similar to those of US […]
WIPO: Progress On 2016-2017 Program/Budget, But Final Work Left To Assembly 21/09/2015 by William New and Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Members of a World Intellectual Property Organization committee last week reached some tough agreements on issues relating to the next two years’ program and budget, but had to pass on unfinished work to the full WIPO membership, which will meet in two weeks.
EPO: 1000s Of Patents Behind The Beer At Munich’s Oktoberfest 18/09/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments The Munich Oktoberfest, the world-famous beer festival, is a display for a range of inventions, according to the Munich-based European Patent Office. A search in the patent database of the office revealed there are more than 2,000 European patents in every beer tent.
WIPO Committee Narrows Definition Of Development Expenditure 18/09/2015 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment After four years of talks, committee members at the World Intellectual Property Organization have agreed on a definition for what constitutes an expenditure on development in the UN agency.
Health Advocates Press United States On WTO LDC IP Waiver 18/09/2015 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Several leading public health groups have sent a letter to United States Trade Representative and US Patent and Trademark Office director asking for more transparency on the US position on a request by least-developed countries to indefinitely extend their World Trade Organization intellectual property waiver on pharmaceutical products.
Cutting-Edge Energy Tech Presented At Swiss Energy And Climate Summit 18/09/2015 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment BERN – Everybody knows how annoying it is to run out of battery power for mobile devices. In the same way, storing energy is a continuing issue for renewable energy due to its non-continuous nature. A number of innovations presented at this week’s Swiss Energy and Climate Summit in Bern sought to address that problem. The yearly event invites Swiss and international speakers to put forward the latest in technology. And according to some participants from start-ups, intellectual property is key, but their IP strategy relies more and more on both patents and trade secrets.
The Lexmark Litigation: Why Does Big Pharma Care So Much About Ink Cartridges? 17/09/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The Federal Circuit will soon hear Lexmark v. Impression Products, a case about ink cartridges. Impression, a foreign buyer, refills spent Lexmark cartridges and resells them in the United States. Impression claims that Lexmark, having sold the cartridges, has exhausted its patent rights, and cannot hold Impression liable for patent infringement. The Federal Circuit will address whether the US patent is exhausted with the sale of the patented product outside the US, write Burcu Kilic and Peter Maybarduk.
Did WIPO Get Cool? UN IPR Agency Joins Creative Commons Initiative 17/09/2015 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The World Intellectual Property Organization exists to protect and promote intellectual property rights, including copyright. As a large international organisation, it is also a producer of a great amount of data and information that users around the world want to access.
New Opinion Of The European Copyright Society On “Reprobel”- Case (C-572/13) 16/09/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment From the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI), University of Strasbourg: On 5 September 2015, the European Copyright Society issued an Opinion on the conclusions presented on June 11, 2015 by the Advocate-General Pedro Cruz Villalón in the HP Belgium v. Reprobel-case pending before the Court of Justice of the EU (case C-572/13), following a request for preliminary ruling from the Brussels Court of Appeal (Belgium) lodged on 8 November 2013.