Advocating for a world where intellectual
property law serves the public interest.

Rep. Smith Promises to Introduce a House Version of the PROTECT-IP Act in September, CBO Scores the Senate Version

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith has promised to introduce a house version of the PROTECT-IP Bill in September. (The Senate version has been introduced and has cleared the Judiciary Committee, but Sen. Wyden has placed a hold on it). According to a story in The Hill, details of the House version are still being […]

August 15, 2011

IP Enforcement Roundup USTR Staff Meets with Civil Society on Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines On August 10, USTR staff met civil society actors to discuss the intellectual property and pharmaceutical provisions in the Trans Pacific Partnership. Assistant US Trade Representative Stan McCoy said that USTR’s broad goals in the negotiation are economic integration […]

Notes on Civil Society Meeting with USTR on the Trans Pacific Partnership

On August 10, USTR staff met civil society actors to discuss the intellectual property and pharmaceutical provisions in the Trans Pacific Partnership. USTR was represented by Probit Mehta, Stan McCoy and Jared Raglad, and the civil society actors were James Love (Knowledge Ecology International), Rohit Malpani (Oxfam American) and myself (on behalf of the Forum […]

Judge Denies Motion to Release Sports Sites Taken Down Operation In Our Sites

A federal judge has denied the Spanish company Peurto 80’s motion to release the domains rojadirectica.com and rojadirectica.org, seized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through Operation In Our Sites. The seized websites included links to third party websites which illegally streamed copyrighted sports events. [Click here for the order] Judge Paul Crotty held that […]

U.S. Seeks Comments on Strategy to Eliminate Counterfeits in the Government Supply Chain

An interagency Working Group headed by the Office IP Enforcement Coordinator and including staff from the Office of Management and Budget, Department of Defense, NASA, and the General Services Administration has been formed to “eliminate counterfeit products from the U.S. Government supply chain.” It recently issued a Federal Register Notice listing its six core obectives, […]

August 8, 2011

IP Enforcement Roundup British Government Announces “Sweeping Reforms” of IP Law The UK plans to modernize intellectual property law by implementing the recommendations in the May 2010 Hargreaves report. It announcement highlighted reforms including exceptions to copyright for private copying, parody, and text and data mining by researchers, as well as the creation of a […]