When the US signs ACTA tomorrow in Japan, the signing statement is likely to state something like “ACTA is entirely consistent with US law and therefore requires no implementing legislation.” This will be a defense of Obama’s new assertion of…
I’ve turned The European Strategy Trilogy into something a little more refined and submitted it to the European Commission’s public consultation on ‘Assessing State aid for films and other audiovisual works.’ Download it here. Here’s the most radical suggestion: Modernize…
ACTA to Be Signed – But Can it Enter into Force? It has been reported in global press this week that ACTA will be signed October 1 in Japan. But that does not mean that ACTA actually goes into…
It has been reported in the global press this week that ACTA will be signed October 1 in Japan. But that does not mean that ACTA actually goes into effect. ACTA Article 40 states that the “Agreement shall enter into…
When we last left the European Commission, it was continuing its pursuit of SMUS (Send Money to the US) based IP policies. We raised some questions about the wisdom of this strategy. But there is also a different EC conversation…
On September 19-20, the UN held a High Level Meeting to develop a global strategy to fight Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), “principally cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes.” A draft resolution was developed prior to the meeting for ratification…
The statement of the administration today continues its practice of actively thwarting the release of meaningful information about its positions in closed door international law making. The statement says little about what the administration’s actual trade policy on medicines issues…
Here is some of what we learned at the TPP negotiation in Chicago this week. Transparency will be worse than ACTA. In response to the repeated calls in civil society and academic presentations for TPP negotiators to increase transparency in…
Karel De Gucht, EU Commissioner for Trade, gave a speech on September 7 at the “Conference on Intellectual Property Captured – Which Course to Take against Counterfeiters?” The speech stressed the actions the EU is taking to strengthen IP and…
With the U.S. round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) underway in Chicago, intellectual property and information policy experts from around the world have released a Washington Declaration on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest that challenges the dominant direction…
Nominet, the British domain name register for .uk domain names, has requested comments on proposed rules concerning “Domain names used in connection with criminal activity.” The rules would include “an expedited process to suspend domain names.”
Most of the time, the international politics of intellectual property law are pretty easy to follow: countries that are large exporters of intellectual property usually favor stronger international IP agreements that help exploit international markets. Countries that are large importers…