Global patent filing increased 9 percent in 2013, said a World Intellectual Property Organization report released Tuesday. China’s patent filing increased 26 percent in 2013, reaching 25 percent of all patent filings worldwide, said the report. The U.S. had the second highest number of patent filings, which grew 5 percent in 2013, said WIPO. The European Patent Office had a 0.4 percent decline in patent filings; Japan’s filings slowed by 4 percent. Trademark filings grew by 6 percent globally in 2013. WIPO said China’s 14 percent growth in trademark filings was the highest globally; such filings increased by 13 percent in the U.S.
That talks at the World Trade Organization on expanding and updating the 17-year-old Information Technology Agreement failed to reach a consensus over "product coverage" issues is "to be sure ... a disappointment," said Sage Chandler, CEA vice president-international trade, in a statement sourced from Geneva. CEA said Chandler attended "the entirety of the talks." The ITA "hasn’t been updated since it was created 17 years ago," she said. "By expanding the ITA, we could remove tariffs on an estimated additional $800 billion in information and communication technology trade globally. Including modern technology products in an updated ITA is critical to making sure the agreement’s many benefits will extend to consumers around the world." Members of the National Association of Manufacturers also "are greatly disappointed by the failure to move forward an expanded ITA," said Linda Dempsey, NAM vice president-international economic affairs, in a separate statement. "The original 17-year old ITA has been hugely important in driving innovation and productivity for the broad range of manufacturing industries in the United States and globally. Manufacturers urge negotiators to come back to the table as early as possible in the new year to agree to a strong product list in order to unlock much needed growth opportunities for manufacturers and their workers."
Nearly 957,000 patents were granted by the world’s five largest patent offices (IP5) in 2013, 4 percent above 2012, said a Friday news release from the Patent and Trademark Office. The release cited the publication of a report from the IP5: the PTO; European Patent Office; Japan Patent Office; Korean Intellectual Property Office; and State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China. Patent applications to those offices totaled 2.1 million, up 11 percent from 2012, said IP5.
O3b Networks plan to launch four satellites Thursday. The satellites will be part of O3b's network that's designed to connect people "who have historically lacked proper access to the Internet," it said last week in a news release. The satellites are to launch from French Guiana, O3b said. Once launched, they'll go through a period of in-orbit testing before being fully integrated into the O3b network, it said.
The FTC’s safe harbor negotiations with the European Union have become “more difficult,” FTC Commissioner Julie Brill said at a Direct Marketing Association event Monday (see 1412080061). “Expectations in the European public” are “very high” in terms of “doing away with safe harbor or radically altering it,” she said. “The adults of the room understand the difficult situation that they’ve been placed in and they’re trying to come up with a reasonable way out,” Brill said. But the negotiations are “harder now,” she said.
TechAmerica will begin work to form a position on the classification of smart watch products for customs duty purposes, the group said on its website. TechAmerica's Customs Committee formed a working group "to develop common positions to provide in advocacy efforts" with Customs and Border Protection and other countries' customs officials, it said. The effort is in preparation for the World Customs Organization Harmonized System Committee meeting in March, during which one or more smart watches will be classified, it said Wednesday. The classification decisions are used to promote consistency in product tariff treatment around the world. The past few years have seen major progress in smart watch technology, and many TechAmerica members now sell the products, it said. "Due to the different functions included in the smartwatches," several classification categories are being considered, including classification as digital cameras, pedometers or wrist watches, it said: "Depending on how these products ultimately are classified, the rate at which wearable technologies and/or their components are assessed for tariffs can vary significantly."
Supply chain services supplier Ingram Micro made a "binding offer" to acquire Anovo, a French-based supplier of reverse logistics and repair services for smartphones, tablets, wearables and set-top boxes across Europe and Latin America, the companies said in a joint announcement Friday. Anovo has operations in seven countries in Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K.), three in South America (Chile, Columbia and Peru), plus China, but none in North America, its website shows. The acquisition is to be completed in early 2015, the companies said. Terms weren’t released, but Anovo is expected to contribute more than $300 million annually to Ingram Micro’s revenue, they said. Europe and Latin America are "two regions that are experiencing robust growth with the proliferation of mobile devices, accessories and wearables," they said. Anovo CEO Francois Lacombe will continue to lead the company after it becomes an Ingram Micro subsidiary, they said. In a separate announcement Monday, Ingram Micro said it acquired a majority stake in Armada, which it called the largest value-added technology distributor in Turkey, with 2013 sales of more than $280 million. Ingram Micro plans to make a mandatory tender offer for the remaining shares in compliance with Turkish financial rules, the company said. Terms weren't disclosed.
The European Parliament passed a resolution Thursday urging the EU Commission and member states to “break down barriers to growth” in the EU’s digital single market, a Parliament news release said. “The resolution underlines that ‘the online search market is of particular importance in ensuring competitive conditions within the digital single market’ and welcomes the Commission’s pledges to investigate further the search engines’ practices,” it said. Members of Parliament want EU competition rules enforced and for search engines to be unbundled from other commercial services. They want the EC “to consider proposals with the aim of unbundling search engines from other commercial services” in the long run, the release said. Consumer Watchdog urged the European Parliament to pass the resolution in order to break up Google’s “monopolistic dominance” in the EU, in a news release Thursday. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., led a Nov. 25 bipartisan letter from House lawmakers to European Parliament officials cautioning them about the resolution’s stemming of cross-border data flows.
House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., led a bipartisan letter Tuesday from House lawmakers to European Parliament officials cautioning them about a resolution to stem cross-border data flows. The resolution is "troubling" and "would deter continued innovation and investment from U.S. based Internet companies," said Eshoo. along with Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and others such as Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Darrell Issa, R-Calif. "We support healthy competition and a fair playing field for Internet companies in the U.S. and around the globe and we believe these goals can be accomplished through the traditional regulatory process."
The U.K. government will introduce a new counterterrorism and security bill Wednesday, said Home Secretary Theresa May in a speech Monday. The bill is intended to thwart global terrorists, particularly those within the Islamic State (IS), who are planning attacks on the U.K. and other Western nations, she said. The bill will “help control and disrupt the movements” of terrorists traveling abroad to fight in Iraq and Syria and improve the U.K.’s border security, said May. The bill, which would create a privacy and civil liberties board, would also help to “close down at least part of the communications data capability gap” between the terrorism group and the U.K., she said. May cited IS’s “significant propaganda reach” via social media as a significant concern.