Intellectual Property Watch

First-Ever Drop In Filings Under Patent Cooperation Treaty Seen In 2009

Kaitlin Mara — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:10:19 +0000

International patent filings under the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Patent Cooperation Treaty fell for the first time in three decades in 2009, owing to a deep economic downturn, WIPO officials said today. Overall patent filings fell 4.5 percent in 2009, but industrialised nations were particularly hard-hit, and are also expected to have slower growth rates in 2010 than emerging economies.

Google Book Deal Still Needs Work, US Justice Department Says

William New — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:17:20 +0000

The United States Department of Justice yesterday told the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that progress had been made on its concerns in the settlement allowing internet search giant Google to scan millions of books into a database. But the government lawyers continue to have doubts on copyright, class certification and antitrust issues, they said.

EPO Suspends Decision On New President

Kaitlin Mara — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:44:33 +0000

An extraordinary session of the European Patent Organisation Administrative Council intended to help elect a replacement for outgoing president Alison Brimelow today was again unable to come to a conclusion between the three remaining candidates for the post. There will be another extraordinary Council meeting on 1 March, just four months before the post was originally [...]

Accès aux médicaments : création d’un groupe de travail chargé de contrôler les accords de libre échange conclus par l’Union européenne

David Cronin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:00:23 +0000

BRUXELLES – Les accords de commerce ne doivent pas contenir de clauses relatives aux droits de propriété intellectuelle susceptibles de remettre en cause l’accès des pays pauvres aux médicaments à des prix abordables, a déclaré un député chevronné du Parlement européen.

A2K4 Conference To Address IP And Human Rights

Kaitlin Mara — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:46:26 +0000

The fourth Access to Knowledge conference (A2K4) hosted by the Yale Law School Information Society Project in New Haven, Connecticut (US) will take place on 11-13 February. The event will be streamed live on video here, and will focus on the human rights aspects of intellectual property, and remote participants can submit comments via [...]

Year Ahead Copyright 2010: Between An Enforcement “Gold Standard” And Stronger Limitations

Monika Ermert — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:58:29 +0000

The secretly negotiated Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is now in centre stage in the global debates around copyright, as is a prospective new international treaty on access to online books for the visually impaired which comes as part of a broader push to clarify limitations and exceptions to copyright. But some are asking, why all the debate and new efforts in national and international copyright legislation when copyright is increasing being exchanged for contractual relationships?

EPO To Elect President In Extraordinary Session

Kaitlin Mara — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:44:43 +0000

The European Patent Organisation will hold an extraordinary session this week in Munich to try once again to find a replacement for current President Alison Brimelow. At meetings in October and December 2009, none of the then four applicants (IPW, European Policy, 17 September 2009) succeeded in gaining the necessary three-quarters votes to take over the [...]

Breakdown In WIPO Patent Committee Could Symbolise Deeper Differences

Kaitlin Mara — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:55:12 +0000

No agreement could be reached at last week’s meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on patents, a sign of still-deep rifts in what countries want from the global patent system.

WIPO Committee Discusses Boosting Client-Patent Adviser Secrecy

William New — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:25:31 +0000

A key committee focused on patent law at the World Intellectual Property Organization in seeking to establish its new work programme last week discussed a proposal to better protect the confidentiality of information passed between patent advisers and their clients. But the meeting ended in no decision, and the issue is expected to come up again when the patent committee next meets in October 2010.

African Plant Extract Freed From German Patent

Catherine Saez — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:48:13 +0000

The European Patent Office’s recent revocation of a German company’s patent on a plant extract is being seen by some as a step toward fighting biopiracy related to intellectual property rights. In its 26 January decision, the EPO considered the compliance of the company with the Conventional on Biodiversity rules on access and benefit sharing. German [...]