Linkdump

Rio Tinto deal heralds huge changes - Mr Richard Susskind writes on a ground-breaking move of Rio Tinto, a leading international mining group, announcing today that it is outsourcing its legal work to India — triggering what is predicted to be an irreversible trend in the legal sector. The international mining group has concluded a deal with CPA Global, a leading outsourcing provider of legal services, and expects savings on its legal costs of up to 20 per cent.

EFF, Public Knowledge, drop ACTA lawsuit - The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge have dropped their Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) lawsuit. The two organisations were demanding access to important documents about the secret intellectual property enforcement treaty. They say, the Obama administration’s decision to support 'Bush-era concealment policies' has forced them to abandon their case. Federal judges have very little discretion to overrule executive branch decisions to classify information on “national security” grounds, “and the Obama administration has recently informed the court that it intends to defend the classification claims originally made by the Bush Administration,” says the EFF.

Way Forward on IP Issues at the WTO Still Unclear - Last week’s WTO Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights saw very little, if any, progress towards resolving TRIPS issues in the context of the Doha negotiations.

Albihns and Zacco announced today that that they have signed an agreement signifying that two of the leading IP firms in Europe will be one as of July 1st, 2009.

OECD Report: “Creative Destruction,” Innovation Focus Needed In Economic Crisis - The document entitled Policy Responses to the Economic Crisis: Investing in Innovation for Long-Term Growth was prepared by Dominique Guellec and Sacha Wunsch-Vincent of the OECD Secretariat.

New timeliness standard for OHIM Service Charter - The OHIM Service Charter for the first quarter of this year has now been published with a new set of timeliness standards designed to ensure more equal treatment of files of the same type.

What on earth was the Wall Street Journal thinking? - Mr Joff Wild in IAM Blog on a substandard piece of writing on patent law recently published on WSJ. Mr Gordon Crovitz claims that: "The Patent Office now gets some 500 million applications a year, leading to litigation costs of over $10 billion a year to define who has what rights." It is absolutely unbelievable that Crovitz could have got this so wrong. How on earth any self-respecting journalist can allow such an obvious error to run in an article he or she has produced is beyond me. And what on earth were the WSJ subs up to?

Interview with Pirate Party Leader: "These are Crucial Freedoms" - Mr Bruce Byfield talking to Mr Rickard Falkvinge, Head of Swedish Pirate Party. "All patents, at their base, are innovation inhibitors," he maintains. "First of all, we're part of the next generation civil liberties movement. This is a civil liberties movement. These are crucial freedoms and crucial rights that are being jeopardized by people wanting to close down the Net, and we want to safeguard those rights. We basically want the fundamental rights and freedoms to apply online as well as off-line. The second thing I want to emphasize is that we've grown only by people talking to one another. We've grown almost a quarter million votes, 50,000 members, 17,000 activists, by one person talking to another, one conversation at a time, one colleague, kin or class mate at a time over a three year period. This, if nothing else, shows that you can do that. You are not dependent on old media any more. If you have a strong message and it concerns people, then you can drive that yourself."

Digital Britain: The Final Report - The Digital Britain Report is the UK Government's strategic vision for ensuring that the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy. The report contains actions and recommendations to ensure first rate digital and communications infrastructure to promote and protect talent and innovation in our creative industries, to modernize TV and radio frameworks, and support local news, and it introduces policies to maximize the social and economic benefits from digital technologies.

Joint Statement: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement - The participants in the ACTA negotiations will next meet in Morocco in July to continue their discussions with a view to reaching an agreement in 2010.

Ambassador Kirk Announces Plan to Move Forward with the ACTA Negotiation - In keeping with President Obama's transparency goals, USTR will continue its efforts to ensure that the public is well-informed about the negotiations. In addition to the April 6 release of a detailed summary of issues under negotiation, USTR has established a dedicated ACTA page on the USTR website. Also, USTR will maintain our "open-door" policy toward all stakeholders, and will hold "town hall" meetings to engage with members of the public.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) - Website of United States Trade Representative (USTR) - still lacking substantial disclosure of ACTA negotiation documents.

Google Trends on 'piratpartiet' (Swedish Pirate Party) and 'piratenpartei' (German Pirate Party) - soaring interest in related Google searches:

Source: Google Trends

All in favour say ‘Yar har!' - “ We're basically a civil rights movement. The Internet is not a toy that the politicians can take away from children when we're being naughty. It's an important part of the infrastructure of society. ” Mr Ivor Tossell for The Globe and Mail interviews the deputy chairman of Sweden's Pirate Party and new member of the 2009 European Parliamentary elections.

Copyright Holders Acknowledge Losing Battle For Public Consciousness At World Copyright Summit - Report by Ms Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch.

HADOPI: French anti-piracy drive ruled illegal - Report by Ms Peggy Hollinger for FT on France’s controversial attempt to crack down on internet pirates by unilaterally cutting off internet access which was dealt a severe blow after the country’s highest court ruled that the draconian legislation violated human rights.

China plans for 50% increase in number of patent agents - Mr Joff Wild reports in IAM Blog that China's State Intellectual Property Office has formulated a Plan for the Development of the Patent Agency Industry (2009-2015).

Reuters: Most firms unaware of Web domain changes - Two thirds of businesses are unaware they will be able to use their own name in place of domain extensions such as .com, .org, or .net when Internet domains are liberalized next year, according to a survey.

Cox is favourite to replace McCreevy in EU Commission - The former President of the European Parliament Pat Cox has emerged as the new favourite to replace Charlie McCreevy as EU Commissioner this autumn.