Intellectual Property Law

EFF Statement at WIPO Development Agenda Meeting in Geneva

Posted on July 09, 2008
"We support the call for WIPO to initiate discussions on how to facilitate access to knowledge and technology for developing countries and LDCs to foster creativity and innovation, and to facilitate IP-related aspects of ICT for growth and economic, social and cultural development...

G8 Declaration on the World Economy

Posted on July 09, 2008
Read Text of GB Declaration on a World Economy and G8's Pledge to Increase Intellectual Property Rights and International Enforcement and to Deputize Customs Agents to Search and Seize Laptops, iPods, and PDA's of Unsuspected Citizens in Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

Development Agenda discussions focus on costing of consultants and Business Analysts (KEI)

Posted on July 08, 2008
The second session of the the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) is meeting this week in Geneva (July 7-11, 2008). The first meeting of this development committee (March 2008) examined Cluster A (Technical Assistance and Capacity Building) of the 45 approved Development Agenda recommendations...

Comment on ICANN’s Proposed Plan to Censor Top-Level Domains (Until 17 July 2008)

Posted on July 08, 2008
ICANN is Accepting Public Comment on Its Plan to Introduce New GTLDs. Members of the public are encouraged to tell ICANN to protect free expression and individual rights at the top-level of the Internet. ICANN: "At its 25 June 2008 meeting in Paris, France the GNSO Council voted to invite public comments on the 21 June 2008 version of the GNSO Improvements - Top Level Plan prepared by the GNSO Improvements Planning Team...

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Vol. 1 Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) Public Comments (USTR)

Posted on July 08, 2008

Vol. 2 Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) Public Comments (USTR)

Posted on July 08, 2008

Vol. 3 Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) Public Comments (USTR)

Posted on July 08, 2008

Vol. 4 Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) Public Comments (USTR)

Posted on July 08, 2008

Intellectual Property Regime Stifles Science and Innovation, Nobel Laureates Say (IP-Watch)

Posted on July 07, 2008
The basic framework of the intellectual property (IP) regime aims to ?close down access to knowledge? rather than allowing its dissemination, Professor Joseph Stiglitz said at a 5 July lecture on ?Who Owns Science?? Stiglitz, a 2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics, and Professor John Sulston, a 2002 Nobel Laureate in Physiology/Medicine, launched Manchester University?s new Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation...

Public’ online spaces don’t carry speech, rights (Associated Press)

Posted on July 06, 2008
First Amendment protections generally do not extend to private property in the physical world, allowing a shopping mall to legally kick out a customer wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a smoking child. With online services becoming greater conduits than shopping malls for public communications, however, some advocacy groups believe the federal government needs to guarantee open access to speech...

ICAAN ? Preventing Hatred v. Censorship of TLD Applications (Digital Journal)

Posted on July 06, 2008
With all the excitement over expansion of IP addresses to be expanded from 4-string to 6-string format, little has been reported on the current and proposed regulations to restrict new domain registration. Watchdogs are deeply concerned over censorship...

Work Remains For ICANN?s New Top Level Internet Domains (IP-Watch)

Posted on July 01, 2008
Internet Technical Body an Authority on Morality? ICANN announced the "biggest extension of the DNS [domain name system] in 40 years" after its decision last week to finish implementation of a new policy for introducing new top-level domains (TLDs). According to the timeline presented at the ICANN meeting in Paris, new TLDs to compete against the existing ...

ICANN Go-Ahead on GTLDs with “String Criteria” of “Morality and Public Order”

Posted on July 01, 2008
"There has been wide coverage of ICANN?s decision this week to adopt a new process for creating new global Top Level Domains (gTLDs).... Civil libertarians supporting Susan Crawford?s line argue that if governments are able to pressure ICANN into prohibiting ...

The issue of IPRs in technical

Posted on June 30, 2008
The issue of IPRs in technical standards is increasingly seen to be contentious since they at times lead to anticompetitive situations affecting markets and international trade. While standards are adopted internationally and nationally by different standard setting organisations, they are implemented cross border...

Member Nations Balk At World Customs Organization IP Enforcement Push IP-Watch)

Posted on June 27, 2008
Concerns ran high in some developing countries last week that their voices have been largely absent from a draft set of standards for heightened intellectual property enforcement advancing rapidly at the World Customs Organization. With the draft standards sent early - and, some say, without mandate - to decision-making bodies at the WCO, the organisation looks poised to become the next major platform for debate on global enforcement of intellectual property, as members discuss the possibility of incorporating IP protection into customs law.

ICANN Board Approves Censorship Policy for Domain Names Based on Morality: 2 Board Members Speak Against It

Posted on June 26, 2008
Today in Paris the ICANN Board passed the GNSO's controversial recommendations to censor top level domains based on notions of "morality and public order", and broadly defined "community" wishes. However, 2 ICANN board members, law professors Wendy Seltzer (on behalf of the At-Large Internet Users) and Susan Crawford, made very powerful and compelling statements to protect free expression on the top level of the Internet...

Seizing Laptops and Cameras Without Cause - A controversial customs practice creates a legal backlash (US News & World Report)

Posted on June 24, 2008
Returning from a vacation to Germany in February, freelance journalist Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. Agents searched his luggage, he said, "then they told me that they were impounding my laptop...

2008 USTR Special 301 Report Summary from IP Justice

Posted on June 21, 2008

New Zealand to be “Consulted” on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Industry Standard)

Posted on June 16, 2008
The New Zealand public will be consulted on the controversial international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), details of which were leaked on the whistleblower website wikileaks.org. ... Culture and Heritage Minister Judith Tizard has requested submissions on the still tentative ACTA proposal with a deadline of July 14...

Civil Society & Organized Labour Seoul Declaration (OECD Ministerial in Korea)

Posted on June 16, 2008
Framework for the Future of the Internet Economy. Freedom of Expression. Protection of Privacy and Transparency. Consumer Protection. Promotion of Access to Knowledge. Internet Governance. Promotion of Open Standards. Balanced Intellectual Property Policies...

Digital Copyright: it’s all wrong. Draft ACTA Treaty Proposes Draconian Measures (Sydney Morning Herald)

Posted on June 09, 2008
"The ACTA draft is a scary document. If a treaty based on its provisions were adopted, it would enable any border guard, in any treaty country, to check any electronic device for any content that they suspect infringes copyright laws. They need no proof, only suspicion...

Der Zoll hört mit (dradio.de)

Posted on June 06, 2008
EU-Kommission debattiert vertraulich über Anti-Piraterie-Abkommen. Vertreter aus 13 Nationen haben in Genf am Montag und Dienstag dieser Woche über ein internationales Abkommen zur Abwehr von Urheberrechtsverletzungen diskutiert. Nichtregierungsorganisationen warnen, dass unter Ausschluss kritischer Vertreter der Entwicklungsländer Fakten geschaffen werden sollen...

Speculation Persists On ACTA As First Official Meeting Concludes (IP-Watch)

Posted on June 05, 2008
European Parliament Study Draws Some Critical Conclusions on ACTA... Dordi agrees with NGOs like Knowledge Ecology International and IP Justice with regard to a certain ?vagueness? in definitions and forum shopping. It was unclear from the use of the terms ?counterfeit? and ?piracy? what the new treaty would actually cover, he wrote.

IGF 2008 Hyderabad: Programme, Agenda and Format of Hyderabad Meeting

Posted on June 05, 2008

USTR Press Release on ACTA Negotiations

Posted on June 05, 2008
Sean Spicer of USTR on ACTA: "The main focus of the discussion was border measures, particularly how to deal with large-scale intellectual property infringements, which can frequently involve criminal elements and pose a threat to public health and safety...

ACTA and the Threat to Credible Global Governance (Aaron Shaw)

Posted on June 04, 2008
"I?ve recently heard through a grapevine that ACTA negotiants have reportedly signed non-disclosure agreements as a condition of their participation in this week?s secret closed-door meeting in Geneva. This is an amazing and frightening step backwards in the history of global governance...

William Patry: An ACTA Call to Arms: No More Secret Govt.

Posted on June 03, 2008
Last week I posted about the proposed Ant-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The issue is getting coverage in the blogosphere, but none in the mainstream press at least in the U.S., which is regrettable, since the issues raised are of great public interest...

The Counterfeit Treat (Huffington Post)

Posted on June 03, 2008
Today in Geneva Switzerland, at an undisclosed location, the US government, the European Commission, Japan and a handful of other countries will meet in a secret negotiation on a new treaty. The working name is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a name that masks the much broader subject matter, and one that was deliberately chosen to intimate and discourage politicians from expressing opposition to provisions that undermine civil rights and privacy, and which many say will change the substantive rights the public has to use copyrighted works or inventions...

US Supreme Court Hands Big Win to Free Speech Advocates in the IP World

Posted on June 02, 2008
[Major League Baseball v. CBC Distribution] By Allonn E. Levy, Esq. "An obvious ?win? for Free Speech advocates and ?netizens? concerned with ensuring open access to information on the Internet, the case also helps the burgeoning field of Internet information consolidators who help consumers collect information and process it...

Congress tries to get Israel off of US intellectual property blacklist (Jerusalem Post)

Posted on May 31, 2008
"The USTR said Israel is judged by different standards than others in its watch list tier which don't have as advanced economies. "Our expectations of those countries may not be as high as they are for Israel," said an official in the USTR, speaking on background...

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