Indigenous Knowledge Misappropriation: The Case Of The Zia Sun Symbol Explained At WIPO 11/12/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment In 1925, New Mexico, which gained statehood in the United States in 1912, adopted a design for its flag featuring a sun symbol belonging to the Zia peoples. According to the tribe, the symbol was secret and stolen from the Zia, who lost both ownership and control over it, and were left to contemplate the sun symbol being widely used and sometimes desecrated.
Towards WIPO Regional Seminars On Copyright Exceptions: Looking Out For Users 06/12/2018 by Beatrice Marone for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Twelve years after the first proposal on the topic, it’s time to speed up the discussion about the global copyright limitations and exceptions regime, advocates and officials said alongside negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization last week. And a key focus will be on regional meetings being planned by WIPO on the issue.
WIPO Draft Broadcasting Treaty: NGO Views On What To Keep, What To Change 30/11/2018 by Beatrice Marone for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The World Intellectual Property Organization draft treaty for the protection of broadcasting organisations was the focus not only of informal meetings among delegates this week, but also outside the negotiating room. On 27 November, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) provided committee participants the impressions of five speakers keen on the topic, each with a different point of view underlining things they feel have to be improved to get to an effective treaty.
WTO TRIPS Council Debates Competition Law, Plain Packaging’s Spread To Other Products 12/11/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The World Trade Organization intellectual property committee met last week with lively discussions on the benefit of IP rights protection for new businesses, and on the role of competition law to prevent abuses of those rights and in particular ensure greater access to medicines. Also, considering the recent WTO Dispute Settlement Body ruling on the tobacco plain packaging, some countries warned against this decision becoming a precedent and spreading to other goods, and undermining trademark protection.
WTO TRIPS Council Agenda: IP Key For New Businesses, Competition Law To Counter Abuses 05/11/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment World Trade Organization intellectual property committee members gather this week for their annual autumn session. On the agenda are now-usual topics looking at intellectual property from two perspectives: IP as an indispensable tool for innovation in particular in the new economy, and IP as a potential threat to access if misused. In addition, India has put forward further questions on goods in transit to the European Union in its directive on custom enforcement of IP rights.
The Global Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism: Where Will Be The Bretton Woods Of The 21st Century? 05/10/2018 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments Joseph Henry Vogel writes: Bretton Woods is the name of a place and also of a system. Bretton Woods-the-place boasts the Mount Washington Hotel and majestic views of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Bretton Woods-the-system is the set of financial rules drafted during an international conference held at the hotel from 1 to 22 July 1944 [1]. The system created monetary order and allowed postwar recovery. For economists, Bretton Woods signifies the system. Its success illustrates how economic thinking can penetrate the political sphere and make lasting change. John Maynard Keynes, the Darwin of economics, led the British delegation.
Alternate Dispute Resolution For IP Gains Momentum, Panellists Say At WIPO 01/10/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Protecting an invention or a creation with intellectual property rights is only truly effective if inventors and creators can enforce those rights. Small and medium sized enterprises find it difficult and costly to go to court to sue potential infringers of their IP rights, and most time, just renounce, according to speakers at a panel on the side of the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assemblies this week. A much cheaper and quicker route than going to court is to seek dispute resolution through a dedicated service, the panellists said.
Not Just A Matter Of Matter: ‘The Way Forward’ For The UNCBD, NP And Half-Earth 07/09/2018 by Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments Prof. Joseph Henry Vogel writes: Is information something or is it about something? That is essentially the question before the Fourteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1993 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which meets from 19-27 November 2018. And it is a “$64 billion question”. The answer could determine the modality for “access to genetic resources” and “the fair and equitable sharing of benefits” (ABS), which is the third objective of the CBD. If the information conveyed in life is something, then the obligation of benefits could be orders of magnitude greater than if that same information is only about something. Re-phrasing the question: Are Users of genetic resources accessing information? Or are they accessing matter, the properties about which are diffused over organisms and jurisdictions? Information-as-the-answer leads to an economic rationale for tens of billions of dollars in payments per year. Properties-as-the-answer justifies the “peanuts” currently being paid.
WIPO Publishes Guide To Tackling Issues In Access & Benefit-Sharing Agreements 09/07/2018 by Adithi Koushik for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The World Intellectual Property Organization has published a guide to access and benefit-sharing agreements for use of genetic resources.
US Raises Economic Concerns About Proposals At WIPO On Patents And Genetic Resources 27/06/2018 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Normally known for sanguine views of rules to strengthen intellectual property rights globally, the United States government this week submitted a paper at the World Intellectual Property Organization putting forward private sector economic concerns about proposals to strengthen international rules for patenting of genetic resources aimed largely at helping developing countries.