http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,32397,00.html
Reuters/ CNET News.com
February 15, 1999
GENEVA--International applications for
patents rose by 23.1 percent last year,
led by U.S. inventors and industry,
according to the World Intellectual
Property Organization.
The agency, an arm of the United Nations,
said developing countries were taking
greater advantage of its system, which
allows an applicant to seek patent protection
by filing a single application. The application
has the effect of regular national filings in
any or all of the treaty member states
without first needing to furnish a translation
or pay national fees.
[...]
Once an obscure bureaucratic
organization, WIPO has been vaulted to the
fore of high-stakes copyright issues that
pervade Congress, the Internet, and
international law, as well as the high-tech,
entertainment, and other industries.
WIPO said the 67,007 applications received
last year had the effect of 2.5 million
national applications. One of the few
profitable U.N. agencies, it earns more than
two-thirds of its revenues from PCT
application fees.
-------------------
~/0,4,32085,00.html
...As promised, Rep. Howard Coble (R-North
Carolina) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
are once again spearheading legislation to
protect the "brow sweat" and deep pockets
of database creators and publishers, such
as WestLaw or Reed Elsevier, which owns
major periodicals, and Lexis-Nexis.
"Developing, compiling, distributing, and
maintaining commercially significant
collections requires substantial investments
of time, personnel, and money," Coble said
on the House floor last month when he
reintroduced the Collections of Information
Antipiracy Act. "The bottom line is clear: it
is time to consider new federal legislation to
protect developers who place their materials
in interstate commerce against piracy and
unfair competition."
The bill would prevent extracting all or a
substantial part of a collection of information
if the action would "cause harm to the actual
or potential market" for the owner of the
database. Violators could face a fine of up
to $250,000 for each offense and five years
in prison.
This is Coble's third attempt to get his bill
passed. It was scrapped last session during
last-minute negotiations that ushered the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act into law.
After fierce opposition by academic and
industry groups, a similar proposal, known
as the _sui generis_ database treaty, also
was rejected by delegates at the World
Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO)
Diplomatic Conference in December 1996.
[ Text of the two Treaties are at
http://www.wipo.org/eng/diplconf/distrib/94dc.htm
http://www.wipo.org/eng/diplconf/distrib/95dc.htm
For anyone involved in the presentation of clear records of
controversial enactments, the ~/diplconf index page offers an
excellent model.]
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kerry
