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No Mutual Agreement On Patents
by Danielle Belopotosky
The European Parliament last week blocked a proposal that called for the "mutual recognition of patent laws" in the 25-nation European Union. Under the proposal, patents granted by one nation would be enforceable in all member nations.
The language addressing national patents was included in a proposal aimed at improving Europe's innovation agenda, known as the Lisbon Strategy, which was established in 2000. In a split vote, where parliamentarians could vote on a particular text of a proposal, the members voted against the "mutual recognition" provision.
Anti-software patent proponents declared victory. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, a European association that supports open standards, and Florian Mueller, the founder of NoSoftwarePatents.com, had lobbied against the language.
Mutual recognition "would result in a flood of patent suits all over Europe, lower quality standards, and ever more software patents," Mueller said in a statement. It would cause applicants to "shop around" patents to willing offices, and the patents then would be enforceable throughout the European Union.
While the mutual recognition provision was rebuffed, the current draft policy also proposes lowering the cost to obtain patents. Mueller wrote in a recent posting on his Web log that such a move would "exacerbate patent inflation and further reduce the average quality of a patent."
In January, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the future of Europe's patent policy in an effort to improve the system across the union. As the commission reviews its policy, Mueller said, "There will be many more and bigger challenges ahead." The commission deadline for public comment is March 31.
WIPO Puts Broadcasting Draft Online
A new version of the draft broadcasting treaty under consideration at the World Intellectual Property Organization is now publicly available online.
The treaty has been updated to include a non-mandatory section on the protection of webcasting. That approach would let nations opt into the section to extend broadcaster rights to webcasting, thus merging three different approaches in earlier versions.
The treaty aims to extend intellectual property rights to broadcasters in an effort to prevent the theft of broadcast signals protected under U.S. law. It includes a U.S. proposal to cover webcasts, enforcing the principle of "technology neutrality."
The updated version removes proposals by several delegations to limit to 20 years the length of copyright protection for distributors of Internet content. Instead, it only references a 50-year protection. Opponents of the treaty say no additional rights are warranted for webcasts.
The new draft still includes simulcasting language that would grant broadcasters and cable firms exclusive rights for the simultaneous retransmission of content over computer networks.
The U.S. Internet Industry Association recently spoke out against content companies that are lobbying to pass the broadcast treaty. In an e-mail bulletin, the association expressed concern for those companies that are pushing for "network neutrality" in the United States, but supporting IP carve-outs "for themselves in global agreements."
The call for net neutrality aims to keep major Internet firms from acting as content gatekeepers. USIIA raised concern over the treaty because it would enable companies like Google or Yahoo that carry webcasts to charge Internet service providers a licensing fee to publish their content.
"This would enable them to twist the Internet into a cable TV model in which ISPs would have to contract for content," according to the bulletin. The association called the move a serious "threat to the future of the Internet."
Toward A European Broadband Union
The European Commission on Tuesday called for EU nations to more quickly deploy high-speed Internet access in rural areas.
The commission said it is critical that EU telecom legislation, infrastructure and rural policy work in concert with individual country rules to drive the deployment of broadband networks in order for it to be available to all Europeans by 2010.
European nations must "make clever use of all policy instruments" to meet the four-year goal, Viviane Reding, the commissioner for Information Society and Media, said in a statement.
Targeted national aid, such as public-private partnerships to support the construction of open networks, will be necessary to foster broadband adoption in rural and remote areas, Competition Commission chief Neelie Kroes said.
More than 60 million EU households were connected to broadband at the end of 2005, according to the commission. Furthermore, broadband was available to 90 percent of businesses and households in metropolitan areas but only reached 60 percent of those in rural or remote areas.
Tech-Backed Trade Deal Under Scrutiny
As the United States embarks on free-trade talks with South Korea, the International Network for Cultural Diversity has expressed concerns over that nation's recent decision to alter its cultural diversity policy.
In public comments slated to be submitted Thursday to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the network said South Korea's recent move to reduce its quota system for movie-theater screens, which limits the number of international films permitted in Korean theaters, ultimately would damage Korea's film industry.
In January, Korea announced that it would reduce the quota by 50 percent -- a move the network says helped prompt the advancement of the trade talks. INCD says the agreement on quotas "interferes with the democratic will of the Korean people to have their political representatives protect and promote Korean culture."
Cultural diversity long has been protected under international agreements. The World Trade Organization's 1947 General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade permits countries to reserve a percentage of screen time for "films of national origin." But in 2005, the United States opposed a U.N. convention to protect cultural expressions.
In the letter, the international network urges USTR to exclude cultural goods and services from trade pacts and argues that the protection of such works also is important to U.S. interests. "Americans need to retain the sovereign right to make decisions about issues of media diversity," according to the letter.
Public comments to USTR on Korean trade talks are due on March 24.
Meanwhile, USA for Innovation on Monday urged USTR Rob Portman and the Bush administration to consider intellectual property infringement as threats against national security.
In a letter to Portman, the organization wrote that "economic innovations animated by new intellectual property are the single-most important factor" determining U.S. productivity. And given the collapse of the Soviet Union, "the greatest security threats" now "arise from places and groups isolated from the global economy." The group urged more comprehensive measures to defend IP rights abroad.
Microsoft's Global 'Phishing' Expedition
Microsoft on Monday announced a global initiative to uncover "phishing" scams that use fake e-mail and Web sites to lure consumers into providing personal financial information. The joint initiative includes worldwide law enforcement agencies and other industry groups.
Microsoft also announced that it has filed 53 lawsuits against alleged phishers operating in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The company plans to bring action against more such people by the end of June, pushing the total number of lawsuits to 100.
Since 2004, Microsoft has filed 123 civil cases against alleged phishers and has initiated the takedown of more than 2,000 phishing Web sites that targeted Microsoft, MSN and its Web-based e-mail service, Hotmail, according to the company.
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