At Internet Governance Forum, Developing Countries Explain Need To Tread Carefully On E-Commerce Policy 18/12/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Who does not like to have the possibility to shop online, or benefit from online services? No one disputes the advantage of the digital age, but in a world in which a very small number of actors, such as Google and Facebook, hosted by rich countries, reap most of the advertising benefits, developing countries are wary of binding rules which would only serve to enhance the digital and economic divide, according to speakers on an opening panel today at this week’s Internet Governance Forum.
Copyright Skirmishes From The European Snippet War 08/12/2017 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A new European Union ancillary copyright provision for news publishers will help them against news aggregators and platform providers, promised proponents and two panellists favouring the addition of the EU Copyright Reform at a workshop of the Justice Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament in Brussels today (7 December). But it’s a promise that cannot be kept according to a study commissioned by the Parliament and also presented during a feisty discussion at the workshop.
Global Patents Soar Again As China Tops Patent, Trademark, Design Filings 06/12/2017 by Peter Kenny for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Innovators around the world filed 3.1 million patent applications in 2016, up 8.3 percent in a seventh straight yearly increase, WIPO’s annual World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report shows. The report, WIPO’s annual report, released at the United Nations in Geneva today, showed China topping patent, trademark and design filings in 2016.
Must All Foreigners Online Comply With US Copyright Law? (Part 2 of 2) 05/12/2017 by Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A case now before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, Spanski Enterprises v. Telewizja Polska, creates a legal dilemma. The court needs to find Telewizja liable for copyright infringement, or else the court will create a roadmap for pirates, enabling them to stream copyrighted works into the US with impunity. But if the court finds Telewizja committed infringement simply because the Polish company put online works that could be accessed in the US, the court will apply US copyright law in an extraterritorial manner that will create problems around the globe.
EU-MERCOSUR FTA Puts At Risk Access To Medicines In Brazil, New Impact Assessment Study Finds 01/12/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments The European Union (EU) is currently negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with the four founding members of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), which comprises a chapter on intellectual property rights (IPR). A new round of negotiations is taking place from November 29th to December 8th in Brussels[1]. Word is that they aim to announce the closure of the agreement at the next World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference that will be held from 10-13 of December in Buenos Aires and the clock is ticking to close all the chapters before that. The authors have conducted a study that shows the adoption of the measures proposed by the EU could put the sustainability of access to health policies in Brazil at risk, as they could sharply increase public expenditures on medicines.
Must All Foreigners Online Comply With US Copyright Law? (Part 1 of 2) 29/11/2017 by Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment US copyright law is supposed to apply only within US borders, not to actions done in Poland. But when a company in Poland streamed copyrighted TV shows into the US, that infringed US copyrights, according to a US trial court. This decision will be upheld on appeal, experts widely expect. Such an appellate decision, however, could expand the reach of US copyright law to a problematic extent. It will be tricky to find infringement in this case without also extending US copyright law to any online content posted anywhere on the globe.
TWN – Proposed WHO Criteria On Medicines In Transit Open Door For Seizures 28/11/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Geneva, 21 Nov (TWN) – A discussion document prepared by the Secretariat of the World Health Organization (WHO) proposes criteria to justify interventions with respect to medicines in transit. This document is prepared for the 6th meeting of the Member State Mechanism (MSM) to be held from 28 November to 1 December at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, writes Third World Network.
Access To Affordable Healthcare: A Global Wake-Up Call Fosters Coalition Of The Like-Minded 27/11/2017 by Patralekha Chatterjee for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment NEW DELHI — Few topics in the global health agenda are as contentious as access to affordable medicines and medical care, and expectedly, divergent views permeated the discussions at a high-level conference in New Delhi, India last week. But if there is one thing that the three-day meet made amply clear, it was this: access to affordable healthcare has emerged as a global problem, and an emerging coalition of the like-minded, cutting across the developed and developing countries, is determined to have their voices heard in international policy circles on the issue.
Breeders Group CIOPORA Calls For New Plant Varieties To Be Patentable 23/11/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A new “position paper” by a plant breeders industry group revives the argument that plant-related inventions should be patentable. New plant breeding techniques modifying the plant genome are not essentially biological processes, thus should be patentable, the paper says. The group also calls for a worldwide harmonised research exemption on plant variety rights and patents for the purpose of improving the invention.
WTO Dispute Panel Set For Qatar IP Case; Appellate Body Appointments Still Stuck 22/11/2017 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel today was established on request of Qatar, which is challenging measures by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) taken in the name of anti-terrorism but which Qatar says unfairly violate its intellectual property rights and other WTO rules. Separately, also at today’s WTO Dispute Settlement Body meeting, members continued to be at odds over a closely watched disagreement on appointing new Appellate Body members.