Dr Francis Gurry yesterday delivered a speech to the WIPO General Assembly accepting his nomination as Director-General. Dr Gurry’s appointment comes amidst a turbulent period for WIPO. A division had arisen between the developed and developing world over the controversial outgoing Director-General Dr Kamal Indris and additionally, The Australian cites a PriceWaterhouseCoopers audit of WIPO found organisational inefficiencies and staffing-related problems. In his speech Dr Gurry acknowledged:

‘Patent Offices are choking on demand ... There are an estimated 3.5 million unexamined patent applications in the world today. The quality of the output of Patent Offices, pushed to cope with such strong demand, is also under critical scrutiny.’ ‘The Patent Cooperation Treaty…is not providing a sufficiently adequate solution to the crisis in demand management’

Dr Gurry outlined a number of changes to be made to address the grievances leveled at WIPO; namely improving efficiency and improving communication between WIPO, member states, and other UN bodies. View his acceptance speech Forbes article on Dr Gurry

Labels: Australia, Patent News

The International Expert Group on Biotechnology, Innovation and Intellectual Property today released a review of international trends in intellectual property law. The study analyzed current IP law from a multidisciplinary approach. Its findings are accordingly framed in broad terms of the social utility of IP law. The study divided IP law into two classes, ‘Old IP’ and ‘New IP’. ‘Old IP’ was characterized by a flood of patents being granted due to under regulation, and flows of knowledge being obstructed by companies and universities: ‘Research also showed that it was unclear whether patents actually increase inventiveness and dissemination’ (Executive Summary Page 5) ‘New IP’ is characterized by more stringent regulation, leading to less patents being granted, and the sharing of knowledge between developed and developing countries. The report makes a number of recommendations, with a recurrent theme of a collaborative approach between countries. See the report (including executive summary). See also an ABC article on this report.

Labels: Canada, Patent News

The Innovation Review Panel yesterday released the Review of Australia’s National Innovation System. A number of recommendations are made such as supporting enterprise in business and tax incentives for research and development. The report made several recommendations with respect to intellectual property. These included that intellectual property should be managed as a facet of economic policy; and also that the threshold of inventiveness required for the filing of new patents be raised, contending that a low threshold of inventiveness actually impedes innovation (at 84). Senator Kim Carr, Minister of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research said that the government will release a response by the end of the year. View the Review and Senator Carr’s press release.

Labels: Australia, Patent News

In an agreement reached on 1 August, IP Australia agreed to designate KIPO as an International Search Authority under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. IP Australia is currently the only available ISA for Australian international patent applicants seeking an international patent search. From 2009, Australians will be able to request an international patent search with KIPO. View the IP Australia announcement and the KIPO announcement

Labels: Korea, Patent News

The 2008 World Intellectual Property Report is an analysis of international trends in the filing of patents trends for the year 2006. A brief summary of the findings of the report: . Worldwide filing of patents increased 4.9% from 2005. . Growth of patent filing in North-East Asian countries . Increase in use of patents in developing countries . Increase in the filing of patents across multiple countries. . Electronics-related fields experienced the greatest amount of patent activity . Also notable increase in the number of patents in the field of renewable energy technology. Click here for the report and the associated press release.

Labels: Patent News