Gabriel Levitt is the vice president of PharmacyChecker.com, which “collects, evaluates, and reports credentials, prices, and customer feedback regarding pharmacies that operate online and through mail-order and fax (generally referred to as ‘online pharmacies’).” Google’s founding and funding of the…
There has been a surge of interest lately in commitments to license patents on terms that are “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” (FRAND). The patents at issue in these cases often cover industry standards that were developed in collaborative trade associations…
The Business Software Alliance has produced its 2011 Global Software Piracy Study, which states that 57% of personal computer users have used pirated software, and that the net rate of software piracy is 42%. It finds that the piracy rate…
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…
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…
YouTube now offers people who upload video the option of licensing their videos under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which gives others the right to use and to remix the work as long as they give the credit to the…
Anil Varghese, Director of the Original Software Initiative, Microsoft India was recently interviewed for the Indian News outfit COIL. He told the interviewer that “software piracy rates in India have declined from 74 per cent to 65 per cent in…
IP owners, government enforcement agencies, and WIPO met in Paris last week for the Sixth Global Congress Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy. Three themes that were repeated throughout the meeting were 1) the need to convince the public to have a…
OXFAM PRESS RELEASE, FEBRUARY 2, 2011: The proliferation of substandard, dangerous medicines in poor countries is being used by rich countries as an excuse to tighten intellectual property rules, boosting the profits of large pharmaceutical companies while making it harder…
The last panel of the day at the Global Conference Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy was titled “The power of education and awareness in building respect for IP.” It was moderated by John Tarpey, Director of WIPO’s Communications Division. He said…
The first afternoon panel at the Global Congress Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy was moderated by Simon Crompton, editor of the British publication Managing IP. He opened by noting that ACTA has been criticized both for having been negotiated in a…
After an opening plenary that restated the themes of the meeting, the second day of the Global Congress Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy broke into panels, one of which was “Financing effective enforcement – innovative approaches.” It was chaired by Trevor…