[Hague-jur-commercial-law] Mark your calendar: IP & TheHagueMarch 29-30 at USPTO

[Arvind T. Thattai]

Michael Sondow wrote:

> Was there any opposition to the European IPR directive, do you know?
> Also, what body passed it?

It's not quite passed as yet (in law, for all practical purposes it 
can be considered as such), but it was voted on by the European 
Parliament.  There was severe opposition from public interest 
groups, but of course they paid no heed.  Instead, they accepted 
most of a report prepared by the Committee on Legal Affairs and the 
Internal Market.  This basically made the directive even more 
draconian than the original draft prepared by the European 
Commission.  Amongst other things, the exceptions in favour of 
consumers were severely watered down.

It's worth mentioning that the Committee's Rapporteur was Janelly 
Fourtou, MEP, who is married to Jean-René Fourtou, CEO of Vivendi 
Universal.