 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Switzerland Wins Rights To Domain Names
by Danielle Belopotosky
The World Intellectual Property Organization on Monday ended a six-year feud over the ownership of the domain name for Switzerland.
A WIPO arbitrator ruled Swiss authorities own the rights to the country's online identities: schweiz.ch, suisse.ch and svizzzera.ch -- which translate to "Switzerland" in German, French and Italian, respectively. The names represent three of the nation's four national languages. Swiss authorities already own svizra.ch, representing Romansh.
WIPO said Swiss businessman Stefen Frei misled Internet users by directing them to his Web sites to the detriment of the Swiss government. Frei, who sells Swiss-themed souvenirs such as T-shirts, also offers a free Web-based e-mail service on his sites. He registered the domains in 1995.
Chinese Researcher Snaps Back at United States
U.S. intellectual property rights protection may be too heavy handed, a senior researcher at China's Commerce Ministry said on Saturday. He likened the U.S. IP system to a "monopoly."
While "proper IPR protection is reasonable and advantageous in some ways," the United States is "going to extremes" in its IPR system, Mei Xinyu wrote in an opinion piece for Shanghai Daily.
Mei, who expressed his own views and not that of the ministry, said IP protections that are too strict could discourage innovation and competition. "Too strict IPR protection also worsens the conditions for innovation by forcing innovators to concentrate more on avoiding others' rights than innovation," he wrote.
He asserted the U.S. patent system has become too tedious for software developers, saying it has forced American companies to "seek development" outside of the United States because enterprises "can no longer stand the continuous patent disputes."
Mei added that the Chinese government has "no right" to require private enterprises to use legitimate software. He said doing so violates China's World Trade Organization commitments. He continued to debunk U.S. assertions that the Chinese government has been lax in enforcing its intellectual property laws. "The complaints of certain Americans that China is not punishing IPR violation acts ... is groundless," he wrote.
In March, Beijing announced that local computer makers must pre-load their shipped products with licensed operating system software. Earlier this year, the government also announced its own computers would be loaded with legitimate software.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, meanwhile, in an address last week to the political bureau of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, said there was an urgent need to strengthen China's intellectual property rights system.
He said such reform would augment China's innovative capabilities, boost its socialist market system and improve China's competitiveness, according to Xinhua, China's state-owned news agency.
Hu also said China should cultivate its homegrown copyrighted and patented brands, and that the government must crack down on IP infringements. "Only by doing so can China improve its innovation capability, adapt to the socialist market economy and the international environment," he said.
The committee also released a report on intellectual property rights that studied the impact of the international community and rule of law on China's intellectual property rights system.
"In face of the general trend global economic, scientific and technological development, and in face of the increasingly sharp international competition, we should seize opportunities and face challenges," Hu said. He added that the government must carry out an "invigorating" science and education strategy throughout the country.
He said they should "lose no time" to implement the IP strategy and apply those protections to core technologies, develop China's legal system and improve intellectual property rights' awareness.
Australia to Fund E-Business Projects
The Australian government on Monday announced it would fund $1.5 million worth of 12 e-commerce projects for small and medium-sized businesses as part of its Information Technology Online program.
Among the projects that will receive up to roughly $150,000 in grants include a desktop diagnostic and management tool for hematologists, a software application for handheld devices to improve the auditing process for the meat-processing industry and electronic prescription management software to help the elderly living in assisted living facilities to track their medications.
"The benefits these sorts of business-to-business projects generate go well beyond the life of the funding," Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Helen Coonan said in a statement.
The government has granted more than $11.7 million to 131 projects since 1996.
British College Teachers Union Boycotts Israel
The National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education on Tuesday voted to boycott Israel over its alleged "apartheid" and discriminatory education policies against Palestinians.
The 69,000-member association voted in favor of the motion during its annual national conference in Blackpool, England. The members voted to abstain from research with Israeli academics who do not renounce those policies. They also will not submit articles to Israeli research journals.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science condemned the move. The association called a boycott "antithetical to the positive role of free scientific inquiry in improving the lives of all citizens of the world."
"Free scientific inquiry and associated international collaborations should not be compromised in order to advance a political agenda unrelated to scientific and scholarly matters," the group said.
Ireland Aims to Boost Tech Transfers
Irish Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheal Martin on Monday announced the government would invest $38.6 million to improve the commercialization of university research and development projects.
Martin said the funding will help ensure the economic returns from its investment in higher education R&D. This investment will have a "major impact on the development of Ireland's skill base and is essential to driving the economy forward," he said in a statement.
Higher education research institutions will be eligible to apply for competitive grants to support the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the market place. The funding will help deter the licensing costs, hire skilled employees and fund other business development aspects.
European Commission Endorses Italian Telecom Proposal
The European Commission on Monday endorsed a proposal that would allow new market entrants into the Italian telecommunications market to charge higher termination rates than their incumbent counterparts.
For a four-year transitional period, new entrants to Italy's market could charge higher termination rates on a gliding scale. Italy's telecom authority, AGCOM, now must develop an appropriate cost model, according to the commission.
The commission endorsed the proposal because new entrants "may not benefit of the same economies of scale" and it could be justified to charge higher fixed-call termination rates.
The commission also requested that AGCOM remove existing regulations governing Internet dial-up call termination and on-call terminations on international markets.
"Where the application of EU telecom rules has led to effective competition, their purpose has been met" in Italy, and regulation should be "phased out," European Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding said in a statement.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
