European Patent System, Court Top Priority Under Swedish EU Presidency 01/07/2009 by Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment COPENHAGEN – A top priority for Sweden as it takes over the EU presidency on 1 July is to boost negotiations on a Community patent system and a European Patent Court, the government says. Its work programme also emphasises the need for “effective protection of intellectual property rights” and lists a conference on enforcement. Officials, however, deny that enforcement is among the presidency’s main IP focus. And the Pirate Party is concerned.
Global Legislative Reform Could Unlock Benefits Of GIs, Advocates Say 01/07/2009 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment TERUEL, SPAIN – Geographical indications (GIs) are in the interest of both producers and consumers as they provide a tool for sustainable economic growth and offer a guarantee of quality, concluded a high-level meeting of GI proponents last week. However, with shortcomings in the international framework and a lack of consensus on GIs, countries have been trying to find legal ways to address the issue.
South African Authors Seek First Public Lending Right In A Developing Country 29/06/2009 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment South Africa could become the first developing country to permit authors to be paid when libraries lend their books if an authors’ group gets it way, but the proposal is likely to spur strong opposition from access-to-knowledge advocates and libraries.
Prevent Patents Inhibiting Knowledge Diffusion For Green Technology, EU Told 26/06/2009 by David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments Stringent intellectual property rules could hamper the spread of technology needed to fight climate change, an advisor to European Union policy-makers has warned.
Leadership Changes At Free Software Foundation Europe 25/06/2009 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), a high-impact nonprofit organisation focussed on access to software in the broader scope of participation in the digital society, this week named named new leadership for the first time in nearly a decade since its inception.
Video Wants To Be Free And Open Too: IP Policy Considerations 23/06/2009 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Video is becoming an increasingly important communication tool on the web, but questions must be asked about its future, said speakers a recent conference. Will it be a medium of self-expression, available for all, or a translation of television to the internet, where content is provided by some and consumed by the rest? A gathering of technologists, academics, filmmakers and others in New York last week issued a call for a freer video culture.
EU, US Consumer Groups Issue Resolution On Enforcement; Demand Role In ACTA 23/06/2009 by Robinson Esalimba for Intellectual Property Watch and William New 15 Comments An international coalition of consumer groups has issued a resolution calling into question global enforcement policy and offering core principles for policymakers to consider in setting new enforcement standards.
Germany Builds Infrastructure To Block The Internet 19/06/2009 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments The German Parliament on Thursday evening passed legislation that obliges internet service providers (ISPs) to filter websites allegedly containing child abuse material, by a vote of 389 to 146. The vote followed fierce debate about the secret filtering list to be put together by the German Federal Police and transmitted to ISPs once a day with only occasional checks by a five-member monitoring body. Opposition parties joined civil rights organisations in warning that Germany is introducing blocking architecture that was extensible and could be used to “censor“ other content without due process.
Thailand Seeks To Toughen IP Laws to Punish Buyers Of Pirated Or Fake Goods 19/06/2009 by Sinfah Tunsarawuth for Intellectual Property Watch 6 Comments BANGKOK – Thailand plans to toughen its intellectual property protection law to punish, for the first time, buyers of products that breach copyright and trademark laws, aiming primarily at pirated music and movies and fake brand-name goods, a senior Thai official said Thursday.
Santa Cruz To Head Chilean IP Office; Kappos Named USPTO Director 19/06/2009 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch and William New Leave a Comment A well-liked and influential IP policymaker in Geneva will head Chile’s national IP office, a US lawyer responsible for perhaps the world’s biggest industry patent portfolio will head the US IP office, and a fixture in the Geneva international trade negotiating and lobbying community is heading home to Canada.