FOREWORD
BIG ISSUES
Just a few weeks into my new role as WIPR Group Managing Editor, it’s already clear to me what the main issues are likely to be in IP for the rest of 2014.
First, there’s the subject of generic top-level domains. For sure, most people outside the legal, IT and IP professions probably don’t yet know, or care, what a gTLD is. Yet the extent to which they’re working their way into the public consciousness was highlighted one day in April when the London Evening Standard, a popular free newspaper that claims to be read by more than two million people each day, led its front page with the headline “We’re first to get a dot!”.
“Te Evening Standard makes history today by becoming the first business to adopt a new ‘Dot London’ website name,” it proclaimed, before announcing the launch of
www.standard.london.
Moreover, companies around the world are waking up to the importance of protecting their brands in this brave new gTLD world. At the public meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in Singapore in late March, ICANN staff reported that there had been 1,930 applications.
Add to the mix the controversies over names like .amazon, and the launch of gTLDs in languages other than English, and it’s clear that this one will run and run.
Ten there’s the subject of 'patent trolls', or non-practising entities, depending on whether you believe these are companies with vague or dubious patents that
they use to extract
money from other businesses, or legitimate organisations that are essentially IP investors.
No doubt there will be more anti-troll laws and more action in the courts to curtail their activities, or at least control those behaving badly.
A third area to highlight is the gradual emergence of
the unitary patent in those European Union
countries that decide to opt in, and the related Unified Patent Court. If all goes smoothly, this should allow Europe to compete better with the US, although there are clear signs that Asian nations— including China and India—are also competing with the US far more successfully than they used to.
More generally, as we reported recently, China looks set to launch a series of clampdowns relating to online infringement as part of
“NO DOUBT THERE WILL BE MORE ANTI-TROLL LAWS AND MORE ACTION IN THE COURTS TO CURTAIL THEIR ACTIVITIES, OR AT LEAST CONTROL THOSE BEHAVING BADLY.”
its
latest attempt to improve IP enforcement. Te nationwide campaign will focus on tackling
36
www.worldipreview.com World Intellectual Property Review Annual 2014 5
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