European Commission Debates Neglected Disease Effort – Outside The IP System 09/11/2006 by Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen BRUSSELS – When the European Commission’s plan to include neglected diseases in its next research programme was debated at a conference here, intellectual property rights played a rather small role. This is a good sign, the Commission said, but some participants disagreed. The 8-9 November international conference on neglected infectious […]
European Parliament Agrees To Patent Reform Plan With Amendments 13/10/2006 by Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen The European Parliament yesterday agreed by a large majority to the European Commission’s plan of going forward with talks on patent reform in Europe, but with a number of amendments to the current plan aimed at ensuring “democratic control” of the process, according to the Parliament. The vote concerned whether […]
European Parliament To Vote On Future Patent Policy Resolution 12/10/2006 by Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen [Editor’s Note, 12 October: Parliament passed the resolution, with amendments, according to informed sources. Details to follow soon.] Members of the European Parliament will vote on 12 October on a resolution that would give the European Commission the green light to further explore changes to European patent policy. But the […]
EU Online Content Stakeholders Debate DRM’s Value For Copyright Protection 11/10/2006 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch European copyright owners’ organisations, consumer groups and artists’ collecting societies voiced strong differences of opinion on the importance of, and need for, digital rights management (DRM) systems to spur development of Internet content at an 11 October European Commission hearing. The hearing is part of a consultation on […]
People News 11/10/2006 by Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment New Negotiators In Geneva: European Commission Expert on GIs, Indian Official on Biodiversity. Also, The World’s Top 50 IP People, new names at WIPO and the NGOs, and more. In the IP-Watch People News.
WTO TRIPS Council To Discuss Biodiversity, Enforcement, “Housekeeping” 10/10/2006 by Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen Developing countries say they will push their proposal on biodiversity and the European Union is sharply stepping up its call for enforcement, but otherwise the preliminary agenda of an upcoming World Trade Organization meeting on intellectual property seems to be reserved for “housekeeping” issues, according to sources. The meeting of […]
Belgian Infringement Case Prompts Publishers’ Project On Automated Access 27/09/2006 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch. Efforts by Belgian publishers’ representative Copiepresse to stop Google from displaying copyrighted content without permission have energized a global publishing industry initiative aimed at resolving the problem. With a trial set in November on claims the search engine’s news service and “cache” are infringing copyright, four major publishing […]
Swedish “Pirates’” Call for IP Reform Spurs Global Interest 04/09/2006 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch A Swedish political movement seeking drastic changes to intellectual property law is resonating internationally, according to a spokesman for the group called the Pirate Party. The party, whose platform calls for fair and balanced copyright, the abolition of patents and increased individual privacy protection, last month put its […]
Replace UK Patent Office And Expand Its Mandate, IP Experts Say In Consultation 21/07/2006 by Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The United Kingdom Patent Office should be replaced by an institution with the same power and responsibility that it has today but with an extra duty to also serve the public interest, a group of intellectual property experts has proposed. The proposal was made to UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in a major […]
Calls For Stronger European IP System At Commission Hearing 17/07/2006 by Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment BRUSSELS – A majority of the 400 selected participants at a recent European Commission hearing on the future patent policy in Europe called for more centralisation – in the form of a single patent system or a common litigation system – but not at any cost. A number of the speakers, whose representation was heavy […]