The Bipolar Nature Of Academic Publishing 05/05/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Since the late twentieth-century shift from the liberal university to the neoliberal university (the latter distinguished by the managerial class installed to leverage and extract value from academic research, plus polish the brand of the franchise), the publications’ ecosystem for academics, foremost in the Arts and Humanities, has been altered beyond recognition. Notably, it has exponentially expanded while at the same time suffering maximum constriction in the form of what legal scholars have called the “great copyright robbery” (Bernt Hugenholtz, 2000), writes Gavin Keeney.
Over 70 Groups Urge EU Telecom Regulators To Uphold Net Neutrality 05/05/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Dozens of civil society organisations this week sent a letter urging European telecommunications regulators to preserve internet neutrality in their current negotiations about the future of the internet in Europe.
Citing “Toxic” Environment, US Congress Members Urge Secretary Kerry To Get UN Report On WIPO 04/05/2016 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The bipartisan heads of several United States congressional subcommittees have sent a letter urging the Obama administration to obtain the full and uncensored United Nations report on an investigation into possible misconduct by the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Meanwhile, procedural wrangling may be taking place within WIPO on who has the right to suppress or see the report.
WSIS Forum: Support For General Assembly Decisions On Internet Governance 03/05/2016 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Support from information and communication technology for implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 is the programmatic topic of the first post-WSIS+10 edition of the World Summit Information Society Forum (WSIS Forum), taking place this week.
ICANN CEO Atallah: Gearing Up For Next Round Of New Internet Domains 03/05/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment One controversial issue from early days of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) could come to final closure ten years later: the decoupling from US oversight of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which manages the central root zone for the domain name system. Meanwhile, the next round of new internet domains is being teed up, the head of the domain name system oversight body has said.
Alleged Leaked TTIP Report Reveals Differences, Convergence On IP Issues 03/05/2016 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments This week’s high-profile alleged leak of recent texts of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiation between Europe and the United States sent a shockwave in policy circles. Below, Intellectual Property Watch highlights some of the IP-related elements in the text.
Infojustice.org – Australian Commission Recommends Fair Use To Restore Balance In Copyright Law 03/05/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Infojustice.org reports: A draft report by the Australian Productivity Commission (APC) concludes that the current copyright law fails to properly balance the interests of copyright holders and users. It warns that “Australia’s copyright arrangements are weighed too heavily in favour of copyright owners, to the detriment of the long-term interests of both consumers and intermediate users.” The APC makes recommends changes to the law to address the imbalance, including “the introduction of a broad, principles-based fair use exception.”
WSIS2016: Software Licensing Matters – To Everybody 02/05/2016 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment A special committee at the World Intellectual Property Organisation on software licensing, a globally harmonized software licence model and a dispute resolution system were among the ideas presented to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at panel it hosted at day one of the 2016 WSIS Forum meeting in Geneva.
MSF Issues In-Depth Report On R&D And Drug Prices 02/05/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctor Without Borders) today announced a report detailing what it calls failings in the current system for developing new drugs in ways that all patients can afford and access, and providing proposed policy options for addressing the problems.
Special Report: The Battle For Biosimilars In India 02/05/2016 by Patralekha Chatterjee for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment [story updated] Biosimilar drugs hold out big opportunities for India’s drug companies. But the future is fraught with challenges. One key challenge is regulations. What does this mean for countries like India, an emerging market for biosimilars? How will the evolving global regulatory environment on biosimilars impact patients? Last month, both these questions came to the fore as the battle over biosimilars moved centre stage in this country in the wake of an interim order by the Delhi High Court, and then another decision by a Division Bench of the same court which took a different view.