JPO Issues First Decision To Register Sound Trademark Consisting Solely Of Sound Element 16/10/2017 by Guest contributor for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment On 26 September, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) announced, for the first time ever, the grant of protection to three sound trademarks consisting solely of a sound element, writes Masaki Mikami.
56 Groups Call For Deletion Of Internet Filtering Provision In EU Copyright Proposal 16/10/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Today a range of civil society organisations sent an open letter to European Union policymakers calling for the removal of a provision they say would violate citizens’ rights by forcing monitoring and filtering of copyrighted materials.
Cancer Group Recommendations To Ensure Medicines Access In South Africa Draft IP Policy 13/10/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment A US cancer group has provided a series of recommendations to the South African government on ways to improve the country’s draft national intellectual property policy, including greater transparency, voluntary licensing, and the use of compulsory licences.
António Campinos Elected EPO President Starting Mid-2018 11/10/2017 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments António Campinos of Portugal has been elected to serve as the next president of the European Patent Office (EPO). He will succeed Benoît Battistelli, who has served since 2010.
Medicines Law & Policy Expert Wins Prescrire Prize For ‘Major Reference Work’ On Access To Medicines 05/10/2017 by Guest contributor for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment PARIS — La Revue Prescrire, a French journal for healthcare professionals, has chosen “Private Patents and Public Health” — a 2016 book written by Ellen ’t Hoen — as one of four winners of its 2017 Prescrire Prize Book Award. Calling it “a major reference work on access to medicines and the patent system,” Prescrire praised ’t Hoen’s book both for its extensive collection of data and examples as well as its readability. (Medicines Law & Policy contributor, Kaitlin Mara was the editor of the book).
Canadian Universities Not Contributing Enough To Neglected Health Needs, UAEM Report Says 03/10/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The Universities Allied for Essential medicines (UAEM) evaluated 15 Canadian research-intensive universities on their contributions to biomedical research on neglected health needs, access to medicines, and education concerning access and innovation issues. The results show that for a number of those universities, this contribution is sub-optimal.
CopyCamp Conference Discusses Fallacies Of EU Copyright Reform Amid Ideas For Copy Change 02/10/2017 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments Bugs in the European Union copyright reform were discussed during the 6th edition of the annual Warsaw CopyCamp held last week. Liability of platforms and special intellectual property rights on snippets were the poster child for bad legislation. But the activists, academics and internet companies also expressed concerns over a general backlash on internet openness and internet freedom.
Interview With New Korean IP Commissioner Sung Yunmo 02/10/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) Commissioner Sung Yunmo took office a couple of months ago and is attending the annual World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly this week. In that context, he sat down with Intellectual Property Watch, and in a Q&A mutually prepared Q&A, he described some of the policies and plans for his term of office, collaboration with WIPO, international partnerships, a proposed WIPO office in Korea, and regional efforts toward global harmonisation.
The Consequences Of Killing USPTO Patent Reviews 29/09/2017 by Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Does the US Constitution prohibit the USPTO from striking down issued patents? That question will be decided by the US Supreme Court later this term. Should the Court rule against the USPTO, it would dramatically alter the US patent system in favor of patentees, give a big boost to patent trolls, and damage innovation in the US. The ruling also would make the US an outlier among major industrialized countries – turning it into the only such nation where patents could not be challenged in administrative proceedings.
Moglen On Privacy And ‘The Machine’: This Is Not Over Yet 29/09/2017 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment NEW HAVEN — In an arresting presentation framed in a first-hand account of the creation of the early internet and focused on the hyper-sophisticated sensors we carry everywhere in the form of our smartphone, marking our every behaviour and element of our life for commercial and state use, Free Software legend and privacy advocate Prof. Eben Moglen gave a speech this week at Yale Law School on privacy, the “machine,” and the jarring threat humanity is facing. There is at least one sign of hope, he said: the FreedomBox.