Thursday, June 12, 2003

Joi Ito has published A Report of Research on Privacy for Electronic Government He got funded by the Japanese government "to produce a global report on privacy technology and legislation."
From the Creative Commons weblog, Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, is recommending Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which is available under a creative commons license.
The European Union is on the official US Trade Representative 2003 Intellectual Property Special Report Priority Watch List. The complaint in full on the website states:
At the conclusion of the 1999 Special 301 review, the United States initiated a
"WTO dispute settlement case against the EU, based on the apparent TRIPS
deficiencies in EU Regulation 2081/92, which governs the protection of geographical
indications (GIs) for agricultural products and foodstuffs in the EU. The regulation
appears to deny national treatment to foreign GIs. According to the plain language
of the regulation, only EU GIs may be registered. With respect to trademarks, the
regulation permits dilution and even cancellation of trademarks when a GI is created
later in time. Our initial WTO consultation request alleged that this regulation
denies national treatment to foreign geographical indications, and does not provide
sufficient protection to trademarks that are similar or identical to a GI and is,
therefore, in violation of the TRIPS Agreement. The United States requested
consultations regarding this matter on June 1, 1999, and numerous consultations
have been held since then. However, to date, we have not reached a mutually
agreeable solution. While the EU has recently issued some amendments to its
regulation, these amendments do not address our principal concerns with respect
to full national treatment and appropriate protection for trademarks. Finally, lack of
full implementation of the EU Biotech Directive by EU member states is also of
concern."
The brittle EU - US relationship over agriculture even spills over into trademarks.

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