China’s Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei announced at a press conference that the nine-month “Special Operation Against IPR Infringement and Counterfeiting,” which ran from October 2010 to June 2011, led to over 150,000 investigations, which yeilded 9031 arrests and…
On July 11, 2011, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) presented the results of a study (prepared by Capital Trade, Inc.) on the value of fair use in the U.S. economy. The study—which was conducted using a methodology developed…
The EC has published a 22 page “synthesis” of the 380 comments it received on the Report on the Application of Directive 2004/48/EC on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. Roughly half of the comments came from consumers or individuals,…
Associations representing content owners have announced an agreement with ISPs to establish a “common framework of ‘best practices’ to effectively alert subscribers, protect copyrighted content and promote access to legal online content.” A fact sheet from the newly created Center…
A group of intellectual property professors (around 90 as of this writing) led by Mark Lemley, David S. Levine, and David G. Post have delivered a letter to Congress urging rejection of the PROTECT-IP Act of 2011 (S. 968). The…
Members of the Senate Finance Committee offered 97 amendments to legislation meant to implement the three bilateral free trade agreements pending in Congress at a “mark mock up” (which was boycotted by Republicans). Sen. Hatch offered 26 amendments to the…
The Argentinean newspaper Página/12 reported on June 30 that the Argentine Senate unanimously approved the Public Production of Medicines Law. The law’s purpose is to promote access to medicines, vaccines and medical products, and to encourage the scientific and technological…
Google has released a new “Transparency Report” which presents country-level data on the number of takedown requests and requests for identities of users that Google received from governments between July and December of 2010. The report also contains data on…
In a video interview from the World Copyright Summit on June 8, Francis Gurry, the Director General of WIPO, makes a (possibly unintended) effort to coop the “positive agenda” terminology of advocates for the development agenda and access concerns in…
A Spanish company that owns two domains seized by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has petitioned the court to release the domains. The company, Puerto 80 Projects, filed a brief in the Second District of New York which…
Last week, “IP Czar” Victoria Espinel was featured as a keynote speaker at the World Copyright Summit, organized by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers. The Wall Street Journal and Tech Dirt report that she described an…
On June 1, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the illegal streaming of copyrighted material, with testimony from Maria Pallante (Acting U.S. Register of Copyrights), Sandra Aistars (Executive Director, Copyright Alliance), and Michael O’Leary (Executive Vice President, Motion…