The critical role of intellectual property as a tool for enabling innovation, the practical transfer of technology and industrial competitiveness were the focus of the remarks of WIPO Director General Francis Gurry to a key meeting of member states of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in Vienna today.

Mr. Gurry said that the intellectual property system played a key role in facilitating technology transfer by incentivizing investment in innovation, providing a framework for trading intellectual assets, and by establishing market order through marks and brands. He noted that the innovation landscape was “the subject of rapid and radical change” pointing to the intensification of investment in knowledge creation which had more than doubled in the past 15 years rising to some 1.1. trillion US dollars in 2009.

The Director General also highlighted the rapidly changing geography of technology production, noting that China had become the third largest investor in research and development. He highlighted, in particular, the experiences of Japan, the Republic of Korea and China which have experienced sustained growth in international patent applications. In 1994, these countries together accounted for 7.6% of international patent applications filed under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) rising, fifteen years later, in 2009 to 29.2%.

The Director General also referred to the dramatic shift in models of innovation, and specifically, the arrival of open and networked innovation, which he said, “offers great opportunities for developing countries to share in innovation”. He emphasized that intellectual property in its broadest sense is a mechanism for translating knowledge into commercial assets noting that the means of production of knowledge was moving from the individual to the collective and from national to international.

Mr. Gurry said that the intellectual property system offers an essential framework for defining the rights and obligations of multiple participants in collective knowledge-generation and knowledge-sharing projects. The Director General also emphasized the importance of developing the infrastructure of the international intellectual property system as a means of increasing participation in the knowledge economy and reducing the knowledge gap.

WIPO and UNIDO are currently exploring opportunities to formalize and further strengthen their cooperation to leverage their respective expertise in support of sustainable development.

The two companies said they will collaborate on the design, development and marketing of mobile productivity solutions, which will be available for a broad range of Nokia smartphones starting with the business-oriented Nokia Eseries.

According to their agreement, Nokia intends to start shipping Microsoft Office communication software on its smartphones next year, followed by other Microsoft Office applications and related software and services in the future.

The agreement marks the first time that Microsoft will develop mobile version of its Office software for another smartphone platform, Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft’s business division, said while announcing the alliance.

“With more than 200 million smartphone customers globally, Nokia is the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer and a natural partner for us,” Elop noted in a written statement.

Microsoft makes an operating system for mobile phones called Windows Mobile, which is different from the Symbian operating system used by most Nokia phones.

“For Nokia, this is the largest business mobility alliance in our history,” said Kai Oistamo, executive vice president of Nokia’s devices unit.

“It’s a significant development in our strategy to better address the significant opportunity in mobile enterprise productivity,” he added.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　                      Source: Xinhua

Wal-mart has apparently claimed that the use of its name, colour schemes, and variations of its logo and slogans by the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada’s  website Walmart Workers Canada is trade-mark and copyright infringement.  The union has posted on the website a purported extract from Wal-mart’s complaint, listing the relief Wal-mart has requested under the injunction.

The union is claiming that Wal-mart is trying to censor its rights to free expression.

Past jurisprudence in Canada (here and here) regarding unions and alleged trademark infringement has often turned on whether the use of a company’s marks by a union on a website constitutes “use” as defined in the Trade-marks Act (Canada).

The plaintiff filed a case with the court this January, asserting Lin and Wu’s distribution of counterfeit LV or Louis Vuitton bags since 2000 as caught by Shanghai Police and AIC and seeking an injunction and 1 million yuan in damages.  The defendants contended that the couple as private persons shall not assume damage liability of the company for the company is legally founded and they are acting for the company.  The court held the defendants were sanctioned either administratively or criminally for their acts of distributing counterfeit goods.  Infringement of the plaintiff’s registered trademarks by the three defendants is constituted.  They shall assume according civil liability.  In parallel, where two or more people injuries other through joint infringement, these people shall assume liability.  The court then ordered 500,000 in damages and reasonable costs.

(China IP News)

U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel last week ruled that Lennon’s widow was the rightful copyright holder, according to her lawyer Jonathan Albano.

“Our client is very happy,” said Ono’s lawyer, Jonathan M. Albano of Boston, who declined to comment on whether the videotapes would ever be released publicly in their entirety.

World Wide Video LLC, a consortium of collectors of Beatles memorabilia based in Massachusetts, sued Ono in March 2008, accusing her of copyright infringement and of wrongfully interfering with its personal property. Ono countersued, saying she is the rightful owner and that World Wide Video has no rights to the material.

World Wide Video claimed it owns the raw footage. The company produced a two-hour documentary, “3 Days in the Life,” using the footage, and planned to show it at a private school in Maine in 2007. The screening was scrapped after the company received a stop order from Ono’s lawyers.

According to those who have seen the footage, the footage captures Lennon at age 29 and in one of the most creative periods of his life. Lennon had recently written “Instant Karma” and is seen practicing the song “Remember.” He is also seen smoking marijuana, talking about how he kicked a heroin habit, and joking about spiking Richard Nixon’s tea with LSD.

World Wide Video claimed it had bought the rights to the footage from Ono’s previous husband, Anthony Cox, in 1970.

“Our film allows a new generation to share with those who lived through those times, a deep and penetrating look at the many sides of the man who set new standards in art, music, fashion and politics,” World Wide Video executive producer Ray Thomas said in filing the lawsuit.

                                                                                                             Source: Xinhua

According to Kim Eun-hye, spokesperson for the presidential office, President Lee said during a meeting of the National Competitiveness Council that the country is losing more from violating intellectual property rights than any gains earned from intruding into others’ intellectual property.

President Lee also said South Korea should also step up its own intellectual property in order to counterbalance an annual deficit of some 4 billion U.S. dollars.

“We must first protect the intellectual property of others if we are to demand protection of ours,” the president was quoted as saying, highlighting that securing intellectual properties is vital for the future of the country.

Beginning last week, a so-called ‘three-strike system’ on intellectual property right protection is taking into effect, under which an Internet user who committed any violation of intellectual property three times would be suspended from any kind of Internet account uses for six months.

                                                                                                          Source: Xinhua

At a meeting on July 28, 2009, WIPO Director General, Mr. Francis Gurry and the Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, discussed issues relating to Asia’s growing importance in the international intellectual property system, WIPO’s capacity building activities in the South East Asian region, climate change and the role of intellectual property, and the role of balanced national intellectual property regimes in promoting development and growth. The Director General and the Prime Minister emphasized the fruitful cooperation between WIPO and Singapore, as evidenced by the recent strengthening of the WIPO Singapore Office.

A Taiwanese man, surnamed Lin, and his wife, Wu Beiwen, owners of Shanghai Zhongwen Trade Co Ltd, were also ordered to bear the cost of compensation with their own possessions if the store’s property was not enough to cover the amount in the judgment.

Judges of the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court said it decided the maximum compensation under Chinese law should be awarded to Louis Vuitton.

However, the judges said it was difficult for LV as it was impossible to determine its real loss or how much in illegal profits the defendants made.

LV was seeking 1 million yuan in compensation.

The company filed a lawsuit with the court in January, saying the couple began to sell fake LV leather goods, including bags and wallets, in 2000.

The lawsuit said investigations by both the police and the market watchdog backed up these claims.

On August 2, 2008, police officers seized a number of counterfeit goods from hidden cabinets in the store.

Records from the city market watchdog show the store was fined in December 2002 and June 2004 for selling bogus goods.

Fake LV products were included in those seized items.

Dion was photographed shopping in the store on Shaanxi Road S. on April 10 last year, allegedly picking up about 50 counterfeit products, including fake LV goods, before a concert engagement in the city.

LV told the court that the sale brought a great deal of profit to the defendants.

The couple had bought at least four properties in downtown Jing’an District, valued at more than 20 million yuan, the company claimed.

The court ruled the couple and the store had committed the crime of selling counterfeits and decided on the compensation amount after “considering the consequences and the time involved.”

The couple were both sentenced to five months in prison for counterfeiting by Xuhui District People’s Court last December.

They admitted selling counterfeits at that hearing, but denied Dion had bought any fakes from them.

The defendants said it was just an assumption about Dion’s purchases.

They said Dion actually came to the store to have her fortune told by Lin.
                                                                                           　Source:Shanghai Daily

WHO’s Margaret Chan, WIPO’s Francis Gurry, WMO’s Michel Jarraud, WTO’s Pascal Lamy, IFAD’s Kanayo F. Nwanze, as well as Britain’s Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, Mr. David Lammy, dipped the “People’s Seal” in ink and added their stamp to the global petition.   The “Seal the Deal” campaign encourages users to sign an online, global petition.

which will be presented to world leaders at the meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen in December 2009. The petition will serve as a reminder that world leaders must negotiate a fair, balanced and effective agreement in Copenhagen, and that they must seal a deal to power green growth, protect the planet and build a more sustainable, prosperous global economy that will benefit all nations and all people.  

In a separate statement in support of the campaign, Mr. Gurry said, “the power of human ingenuity is our best hope for restoring the delicate balance between ourselves and our environment. It is our greatest asset in finding solutions to this global challenge, enabling us to move forward from the carbon-based, grey technologies of the past to the carbon-neutral, green innovation of the future. That is why WIPO is supporting the Seal the Deal Campaign. We encourage all governments to work together to seal the deal on a fair, balanced and effective climate agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009.”   

The Conference on Intellectual Property and Public Policy Issues, hosted by WIPO from July 13-14, 2009 is exploring the specific contribution that IP can make in supporting a range of public policy objectives. The inter-disciplinary nature of the Conference reflects the complexity of the shared challenges that the international community is facing, including climate change, epidemics, public health, food security and the preservation of biodiversity.  The Conference is a platform for participants to exchange views on these issues and to improve understanding by all stakeholders of how IP can contribute to development and technology transfer. Presentations and podcasts are available at: http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/2009/ip_gc_ge/program.html.  

• Tel:  (+41 22) – 338 81 61 or 338 95 47
• Fax:  (+41 22) – 338 82 80
• Email: publicinf@wipo.int