Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the leaders of G8 countries closed their recent summit in Hokkaido, Japan by encouraging “the acceleration of negotiations to establish a new international legal framework, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and seek to complete the negotiation by the end of this year.” (By Michael Geist)
As part of the Single Market Act, the Commission unveiled today a wide-ranging strategy to modernise intellectual property rights (IPR) in the Single Market. The strategy sets out a blueprint for a number of initiatives the Commission intends to take between now and 2014. Among the first deliverables of this strategy are today's proposals for an easier licensing system for so-called "orphan works" and for a new regulation to reinforce customs actions in fighting trade of IPR infringing goods.