US, Brazil Duel On WIPO Development Agenda 21/07/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment At the start of day two of a meeting on reform of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization toward developing country concerns, the United States put a political stake in the ground, calling for the meeting to recommend moving development issues to an existing technical committee. The US proposal is in marked contrast to a […]
Stage Set For Global Face-Off On Internet Governance 14/07/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Luxembourg City–A new report from a UN task force on governance of policy issues related to the Internet sets the stage for global negotiations over who has oversight of those issues. The report, the final outcome of a working group on Internet governance mandated at the 2003 UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), […]
ICANN’s Process For Strategic Plan, .Net Domain Renewal Questioned 13/07/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Luxembourg City—The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the non-profit corporation in charge of technical aspects of the Internet naming system, is being questioned this week for potentially unaccountable actions. The questioning comes from the organisation’s constituents at an 11-17 July board meeting in Luxembourg. ICANN has faced charges in the early part […]
ICANN Takes Credit, Criticism On New Internet Domains 13/07/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Luxembourg City—The organisation responsible for the Internet name and address system this week hailed completion of a contract signed over the weekend with a new .mobi Internet domain, but heard criticism of its handling of the new .xxx domain for adult websites. The comments came in the first days of a weeklong meeting of the […]
Participation High For WIPO Online Public Forum, Official Says 21/06/2005 by Allison A. Meyer for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment An online forum hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation aimed at shaping WIPO’s contribution to the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) generated a large turnout, according to a senior WIPO official. “We have gotten a great deal of response,” Richard Owens, director of the Copyright, E-Commerce, Technology and Management Division at […]
Health Experts Debate Solutions For New Treatments, Access To Medicines 08/06/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Experts from across the political and socioeconomic spectrum spent three days last week at the World Health Organisation engaged in debate about the best ways to stimulate the development of new treatments for underserved illnesses and to improve poor countries’ access to available medicines. The task of summarizing the results of the meeting and other […]
Health Assembly Officials Watch For Last-Minute Amendments 20/05/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment At the U.N. World Health Assembly negotiations in Geneva, officials have been watching carefully for the last-minute introduction of any amendments they view as unfavourable. This is true for all of the texts being developed, only some of which have a direct relation to intellectual property issues. The assembly, which runs from 16 to 25 […]
Academic Panel Profiles Benefits of IP for Economic Development 10/05/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment On the coattails of last week’s multi-sided seminar on intellectual property and development at the World Intellectual Property Organisation came a half-day Georgetown University forum on “intellectual property, technology diffusion and economic development.” The Georgetown forum, held in Geneva outside WIPO on the day after the seminar, was largely attended by WIPO personnel and industry […]
WIPO Development Seminar Informs But Impact Unclear 09/05/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Many of the top experts on the subject of intellectual property and global development shared views in Geneva last week at a World Intellectual Property Organisation seminar. But while the event may have served to spell out the current debate on the issue, it is unclear how the two-day event advanced the issue from a […]
Reform Debate Trips Up WIPO Development Aid Meeting 15/04/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Members of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on Friday failed to agree on the proper role for a permanent committee on technical cooperation that could impact larger efforts by some to reform WIPO toward development issues. Debate focused on a proposal by developed countries (drafted by Canada) to broaden the scope of the existing […]