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Trade pact would make internet services more expensive
The TPP may effectively force the entire Internet Service Provider (ISP) industry to become the street cops for the movie and music industry.
Jailbreaking and unlocking might be restricted in treaty pushed by Obama
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty pushed by the Obama administration could complicate efforts to loosen restrictions on jailbreaking and unlocking smartphones, tablets, or other consumer electronics
Patents against people: How drug companies price patients out of survival
The struggle for access to medicine presents a legal and ethical minefield for rich and poor countries alike—one that is being fought out as humanitarians challenge corporations over intellectual property rights.
ACTA-plus damages in EU-Singapore free trade agreement
The recently disclosed text of the EU-Singapore FTA contains the much criticized retail price damages, known from the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the treaty the European Parliament rejected last year.
A Kiwi-sized "Spanner in the works" of the TPP?
Are the PBS and Pharmac under threat from the TPP? Certainly, the respective governments of both Australia and New Zealand think not. So why then the paranoia? Quite simply, we need the US more than they need us. In order to secure the TPP (and with it, for example, access to the lucrative US dairy market), both Australia and New Zealand will likely need to yield in several key areas.
EU wants to ban Seed-freedom in poorest countries of the world under WTO law
Least Developed Countries might loose the current exceptions from the WTO requirements on Intellectual Property Rights, if the EU, US and other rich countries succeed in their current efforts at the WTO in Geneva this week.
Witnesses at US trade hearing offer opinions (and warnings) on intellectual property in upcoming negotiations with the EU
Today the Obama Administration’s inter-agency Trade Policy Staff Committee held the first day of its two-day hearing on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Food culture clash: EU, US conflicting concepts for GIs; both covet Asian market
A US trade association is raising concerns about the US and EU imposing their own approaches to GIs through FTAs, partiuclarly in Asia
IPR lists for trans-Atlantic trade deal still growing; Risk of locking in old IPR regimes?
Locking in Europe and the United States to “old” intellectual property regimes is the one “killer argument” against including an IP chapter in the upcoming Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), according to Bernd Hugenholtz, director of the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Brussels.
Copyright and secrecy don’t make for good trade agreements
Copyright is an uncomfortable fit for a trade agreement and should be kept out of the United States-European Union Free Trade Agreement.
Investors’ IP rights unbound: The danger of investment clauses to access to medicines
Although access to medicines activists have been wise to focus our attention intently on convincing low- and middle-income countries to adopt and use all possible TRIPS-compliant flexibilities and to oppose the TRIPS-plus IP chapters in free trade agreements, we have neglected to interrogate another chapter in free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties that perhaps pose an even greater threat to our collective access to medicines – investment chapters.
The return of ACTA: US dictating Canada’s intellectual property laws
Many assumed that ACTA was dead, but it still remains a top priority for the U.S. and they are attempting to revive the discredited agreement by trying to get the six necessary ratifications for it to come into force.
Manmohan Singh must learn from the Novartis judgement
Will Manmohan Singh understand the clear purpose behind the national sentiment around the Supreme Court judgment on Novartis’ cancer drug Glivec? If he does, he should take a relook at the India-EU Free Trade Agreement that is cooking in his back-room.
EU FTA, TRIPS plus could hit Indian generic drug makers
The FTA might enable seizure of property of generic drug makers on suspicion of IP rights infringement
Differences in prominent US and EU treaties concerning liability for service providers
A comparison of language between two of the most substantive and recent free trade agreements (FTAs) adopted by the US and the EU for one controversial area of IP: liability for internet service providers (ISP) for infringing content.
Trade Commissioner: EU to seek GIs in US FTA, but no new ACTA
EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said he did not want to reopen the discussion on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which he called “a nail to my coffin.” As long as there is no respective EU legislation with regard to copyright protection on the internet, he will not try to “bring it in through the backdoor,” he said.