[Ecommerce] WIPO Academy new courses on TK, biotech and plant varieties

[Manon Ress]

QUOTE
Later in the year, the WIPO Academy will launch, for a range of fees,
first-time courses on the intellectual property aspects of traditional
knowledge, biotechnology and the =93international protection of plant
varieties.=94
END of QUOTE


http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=3D13437&Cr=3Dintellect&Cr1=3Dp=
roperty

UN intellectual property organization offers courses from next week

WIPO headquarters in Geneva
24 February 2005 =96 With disputes over rights to inventions, discoveries
and traditional knowledge sometimes leading to expensive lawsuits, the
United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) prepares
to accept new students next week for its online courses.

The introductory general course on intellectual property issues is
offered free of charge in seven languages from some 80 teachers and
tutors and is a pre-requisite to any other WIPO Academy course, it said.

The general course includes such areas as copyright, patents,
trademarks, geographical indications, industrial design, plant breeders'
rights, unfair competition and international registration systems. Some
38,000 people from over 180 countries have taken it since the Academy
was founded in 1998.

The Academy will also offer advanced courses in copyright, patents and
trademarks, starting in May.

Later in the year, the WIPO Academy will launch, for a range of fees,
first-time courses on the intellectual property aspects of traditional
knowledge, biotechnology and the =93international protection of plant
varieties.=94

Meanwhile, WIPO=92s Arbitration and Mediation Centre received 1,179 cases
claiming =93cyber-squatting,=94 or abusive registration of trademarks as
domain names, last year, a 6.6 per cent increase over 2003, it said.

WIPO Deputy Director Francis Gurry, who oversees the Centre, said over
80 per cent of the decisions had been decided in favour of the
trademark-holder and had created a deterrent effect against cyber-squatting=
.

Among those who used the Centre=92s services were Madonna, Julia Roberts,
Eminem, Pamela Anderson, JK Rowling and Michael Crichton, WIPO said.

Cases have come in from both developed and developing countries to its
400 independent panellists from 50 countries, it said.

++++++++++++++++
See also on WIPO page:

http://www.wipo.int/edocs/prdocs/en/2005/wipo_upd_2005_240.html


--
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC PO Box 19367,
Washington, DC 20036, USA Tel.:  +1.202.387.8030, fax: +1.202.234.5176

Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva, 1 Route des  Morillons, CP
2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland. Tel: +41 22 791 6727

Consumer Project on Technology in London, 24 Highbury Crescent, London,
N5 1RX, UK. Tel:+44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252. Mob:+44(0)790 386 4642. Fax:
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