TPP Trade Ministers’ Report to Leaders Claims Overall Progress, Indicates Tough Negotiations on Intellectual Property
[Mike Palmedo] The 12 heads of state of the nations negotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) met in Beijing today, where they issued a statement indicating they have “instructed our Ministers and negotiators to make concluding this agreement a top priority.” However, their statement did not discuss a deadline or timeframe. They also released a “Trade Ministers’ Report to Leaders,” which aimed to show that the pace of negotiations has “accelerated” and negotiators have made progress in many areas. On the topic of intellectual property negotiations, however, the report hints that negotiators are having trouble (they are “working hard” through a “challenging” area). Click here for more.
See also: Krista Cox. The Intellectual Property Chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and Investment in Developing Nations. Link.
OpenCon 2014 – November 15-17 in Washington DC
[opencon2014.com] OpenCon 2014 is the student and early career researcher conference on Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data and will be held on November 15-17, 2014 in Washington, DC. It is organized by the Right to Research Coalition, SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), and an Organizing Committee of students and early career researchers from around the world. The meeting will convene students and early career researchers from around the world and serve as a powerful catalyst for projects led by the next generation of scholars and researchers to advance OpenCon’s three focus areas—Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data. Click here for more.
Civil Society Concerns Over India-US Joint Working Group
[K.M. Gopakumar] Several civil society organisations and individuals have expressed earnest concerns over the India-United States Joint Working Group on Intellectual Property. A collective sign-on letter from more than 50 organisations, networks and individuals to India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi sets out the concerns over the decision to establish the Working Group that was announced in a US-India Joint Statement dated 30 September 2014. The letter urges the Prime Minister to approach the intellectual property (IP) issue with a “holistic perspective rather the narrow confines of trade and economic policy”. Click here for more.
Music Industry Constituents Gather at Georgetown University for the Future of Music Policy Summit
[Charles Frank] The Future of Music Coalition, one of the leading music policy advocates in Washington, held its fourteenth annual Policy Summit at Georgetown University on October 27 and 28. The Summit featured a variety of panels geared toward musicians, agents, managers, promoters, and lawyers alike. The first panel of the two-day event included representatives from several technology companies/startups in the music industry space. KC Fox from Eventbrite described the company’s ticketing and registration platform and its new “Neon” mobile application. Click here for more.
Communia Now Representing the Public Domain at the EU Observatory on Infringements of IPR
[John Hendrik Weitzmann] Last week Communia joined the “European Observatory on Infringements of IPR” which is hosted by the European Union’s Office of Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM). The Observatory’s task is to provide the EU Commission with insights on every aspect of IPR infringement. It does so primarily by conducting surveys and studies on how, where and why IP rights are violated by whom and to what extent. In addition is helps coordinate across borders the efforts of various institutions involved in law enforcement. It also runs general as well as focussed awareness campaigns in the field of IP. This is done in conjunction with a permanent stakeholder dialogue, which is organized in working groups and a yearly plenary. Click here for more.
Global Differences On Patents Lead WIPO Patent Law Committee To Stumble On Future Work
[Catherine Szez] Once again, differences over the role of a World Intellectual Property Organization committee last week came in the way of consensus and prevented delegates from agreeing on future work. At the heart of the discontent was the perceived imbalance of the proposed programme of work, which some said disregarded the interests of developing countries. A speaker for the African region gave a striking speech on the Ebola crisis as an example of the failure of the patent system. Click here for the full story on IP Watch.
