Aussie Turns on Aussie as US Congress Shines Light on Allegations of Skulduggery at WIPO

On Wednesday 24 February 2016 a number of US Congressional subcommittees held a joint hearing on ‘Establishing Accountability at the World Intellectual Property Organization: Illicit Technology Transfers, Whistleblowing, and Reform’.  Three witnesses appeared at the hearing: Mr James Pooley, who is a US citizen and the former Deputy Director for Innovation and Technology at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); Ms Miranda Brown, who holds dual Australian/British citizenship (as do I), and is the former Strategic Adviser to WIPO Director General (DG) Mr Francis Gurry (also an Australian); and Dr Matthew Parish, an international lawyer of US origin, now practising in Geneva, who appeared in his capacity as legal counsel to the sole union representing the interests of WIPO employees, the Staff Council.

The testimony of the three witnesses is incendiary and damning of Gurry, and makes for fascinating, if uneasy, reading. 

Pooley reprises his earlier allegations regarding Gurry’s ‘secret’ programs to ship ‘high-end computers and other electronic gear to North Korea and Iran’, his ‘secret’ plans to open WIPO satellite offices in China and Russia, and his intimidation of, and retaliation against, whistleblowers within WIPO.  Pooley also implicates Australian officials – most notably the then-Ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley – in blocking Congressional efforts to put forward a US candidate to challenge Gurry’s re-appointment to a second term as WIPO DG in 2013.

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Tags: International treaties, News, Politics, WIPO

WIPO Director General Under Official Investigation for Misconduct

World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) reported last week that the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) is now under formal investigation over allegations dating back to 2008 that Director General, Francis Gurry, ‘ordered a series of burglaries of workers’ offices in order to obtain samples of their DNA.’

I have written about these allegations on two previous occasions.  The first was back in December 2013, in response to articles written by Gene Quinn, on his estimable IP Watchdog blog (which is currently celebrating an incredible – in Internet terms – 15 years of continuous operation).  The second was in April of this year, following revelations that then Deputy Director General James Pooley had filed a ‘Report of Misconduct’ with WIPO, and with the US Mission in Geneva. 

On both occasions I expressed my suspicion that the resurfacing of the accusations against Gurry was at least partly motivated by US anger at WIPO’s involvement, under his direction, in UN assistance programs to North Korea and Iran, and building of closer ties with China and Russia.  At the time, Gurry was seeking reappointment as Director General for a second six-year term.  His reappointment was confirmed by the General Assembly on 8 May 2014.

Not that this was the first time Gurry had been the target of an effort to undermine his candidacy for the top job at WIPO.  His first term began controversially, with Brazil threatening at one stage to challenge his election on the basis that it was not legitimate.  What was allegedly behind this challenge was a concern that Gurry would be too ‘pro-developed-world’ – a fear that turned out to be unfounded – though the fact that it was Brazil’s own candidate who lost out by a single vote was no doubt a factor!  Ironically, it is Gurry’s pro-developing-world agenda that appears to have made him so unpopular with US politicians.

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Tags: International treaties, News, Politics, WIPO

IP Australia to Accept International Applications Online via ePCT

From 14 April 2014 it will be possible to file international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), designating IP Australia as the Receiving Office, via the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ePCT online filing service.

Currently, electronic filing of PCT applications with IP Australia is possible using the PCT-SAFE system.  This requires documents and filing forms to be prepared using a dedicated software package installed on the user’s PC.  The software creates a file that is then uploaded to IP Australia’s website to lodge the application.  The PCT-SAFE software includes useful features, such as the ability to store applicant details for future re-use in subsequent applications, but all of the stored data is confined to the computer system on which the software is installed (although there are export/import functions provided so that this data can be moved).

WIPO’s ePCT system takes all of the PCT-SAFE functionality, and more, online so that it is accessible from anywhere a web browser can be found (subject to possession of a WIPO digital certificate, of which more below). 

The ePCT system also retains applicant and inventor details (names, addresses, nationality etc) so that they do not need to be re-entered every time they are needed.  It allows partially complete applications to be saved.  Once an application has been filed, it remains on the user’s list of applications, and can easily be accessed to obtain up-to-date status information, and to submit further documentation for processing, such as changes of applicant, inventor or agent names or addresses.  The creator or owner of an application filed via ePCT can assign roles to other users, so that various access rights can be made available to different people, e.g. members of an IP management team.

IP Australia has stated that ePCT will be its preferred channel for filing of PCT applications and associated requests, from 14 April 2014.  Clients who are currently using PCT-SAFE or more traditional (i.e. paper) filing methods will want to look at switching over to ePCT as soon as possible.

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Tags: Australia, International treaties, Patent Office, WIPO

Hate Bad Patents? You Could Try Being More Observant!

It is widely believed that there are a lot of ‘bad patents’ around – ones that the examiner should have rejected, if only the search had turned up the most relevant prior art.

There is certainly some truth to this belief.  Examiners in all patent offices are only human, they have limited time to examine each application which comes before them, and the searching tools available to them are imperfect.  Indeed, there is no such thing as a perfect search, because the world’s stores of public knowledge are just not fully available in a readily searchable form.

In this context, crowdsourcing of patent searching makes a great deal of sense.  Patent laws and regulations are increasingly making provision for ‘third parties’ (i.e. people who are neither the applicant, nor the examiner) to submit information that may be pertinent to the validity of claims in filed patent applications.  For example, under provisions of the America Invents Act, an expanded third party submission program will commence on 16 September 2012.

The latest passenger on the bandwagon is the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), which from 2 July 2012 is accepting ‘third party observations’ on pending international applications (IAs) filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

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Tags: Examination, Novelty, Obviousness, PCT, Prior art, WIPO

Patentology Newsbytes – 21 June 2011

A semi-regular round-up of breaking news, current events and brief comments.

IN THIS ISSUE…

Proposed NZ Software Patent Ban Goes Mainstream – Will USPTO Fee Diversion Issue Kill Patent Reform? – Australian Government Responds to ACIP Report on Patent Enforcement – Rwanda Joins the PCT Club

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Tags: Australia, Law reform, New Zealand, News, Newsbytes, Patent law, US, WIPO

Review – WIPO Goes Troppo with New Services

The past week has seen the launch of not one, but two, new information services by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (whose imposing glass headquarters in Geneva is pictured).

First, on 20 September 2010, WIPO Lex was announced.

And then, because too much searchable IP information is never enough, WIPO announced the launch of IP Advantage.

Need to know more?  Then read on!

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Tags: News, Reviews, WIPO

So You Want to Attack an Invalid PCT Application...

The World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) has been working on a number of enhancements to the international patent application system operating under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), in response to a study by the International Bureau (IB) entitled “The Need for Improving the Functioning of the PCT System”.

According to the current (July-August) edition of the PCT Newsletter, a number of recommendations were endorsed at a recent meeting of the PCT Working Group.

One of these, reportedly due to be implemented in the near future, is to develop an online system to accept third party observations in relation to pending PCT applications.  This will enable any person having information (typically prior art) relevant to the validity of claims in a pending PCT application to submit that information via a web form hosted on the WIPO site.  The submitted documents would be accessible to international examiners, to examiners in the various national offices, and to third parties (via the PATENTSCOPE service).

Similar provisions are already in place at some national patent offices.  For example, any third party can submit observations and pertinent prior art in respect of any application pending before the European Patent Office (EPO), which will generally be considered by the Examining Division.  In Australia, section 27 of the Patents Act 1990 provides for any person to submit information to the patent office that may affect the validity of the claims of a patent application.

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Tags: Examination, PCT, WIPO