This page contains articles or interviews where IIPI is either mentioned or an IIPI team member is cited.
Concern Arises Over Proposed Pan-African IP Organization
August 30, 2007
Intellectual Property Watch www.ip-watch.org
“Other observers also have the perception that the PAIPO [Pan-African Intellectual Property Organisation] plans have not moved too far yet. ‘My initial feeling is that it has not received as much attention as it needs to get real financial support and/or organisational momentum behind it,’ IIPI Vice President Molly Torsen told Intellectual Property Watch. Torsen said in a presentation that there is ‘no one-size-fits-all IP plan for Africa,’ referring to limited resources for regional cooperation, such as language barriers (1,000-1,500 regional languages and 8,000 dialects) and geographical limitations.”
Interview with IIPI Chairman Bruce Lehman on Intellectual Property in Peru
June 15, 2007
Read Interview in El Comercio [PDF 180KB]
Artist Profile of Rex Omar
June 2, 2007
Ghanabase.com
”He has been an active participant in many local programmes organised by both government and the private sector on issues dealing with the development of the music industry in Ghana….He attended the conference on West Africa and Intellectual property organised by the International Intellectual Property Institute – December 8, 2004, Dakar, Senegal. Currently he is a member of a World Bank local committee structuring the Ghanian music sector in preparation for a financial facility geared towards poverty alleviation.”
Cooperation of Local Police Forces is a Must to Fight Counterfeiting – INTERPOL
by Bashhar Al Ashhab
December 12, 2006
AGIP News
“’We conducted a study in Jordan specifically in the pharmaceutical industry, and we found out that Jordan can compete well in the world market, thus making Jordan a good place for counterfeiters,’ according to the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI) President and CEO Brad Huther.”
The China Challenge
by K.C. Swanson
September 12, 2005
Daily Deal
“What is standing in the way of better intellectual property rights enforcement? ‘It’s not a plot,’ says Bruce Lehman, former commissioner of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Chairman of the International Intellectual Property Institute. ‘It’s the result of a system in transition.'”
Fake Designer Items Supports Global Crime
by Rachel Stone
August 29, 2005
The Beaumont Enterprise
“Law makers have asserted that the sale of the counterfeit goods funds terrorism. At best, it supports ubiquitous crime rings, said Jeff Martin, a program attorney with the International Intellectual Property Institute in Washington DC. ‘They’re pretty shady, definitely, and they’re very widespread,’ he said in a telephone interview from Washington.”
Kingdom Urged to Make Transition to E-Commerce
by Melanie Jacobson
April 25, 2005
The Jordan Times
“Eric Garduño, project manager for the International Intellectual Property Institute, told the audience that ‘efficiency is the absolute benchmark for international competitiveness . . .’ ‘E-commerce,’ he asserted, ‘will produce more business for companies and, in turn, will provide more jobs.'”
Grand Opening
By Kenneth Klee
February 25, 2005
IP Law and Business
“At an International Intellectual Property Institute roundtable in 2002, Boston Consulting Group’s Kevin Rivette called P&G’s program ‘a major strategy.’ It has ‘totally shifted [P&G’s] competitive advantage in markets,’ said Rivette, author of Rembrandts in the Attic.”
Original Intent
by Eriq Gardner
October 1, 2004
Corporate Counsel
“Lehman is often described as the ‘father of the digital copyright’ . . . Lehman helped author the DMCA, a piece of legislation that drew fierce criticism from digital rights activists. In an interview . . . Lehman spoke about the Apple-Real [Networks] controversy and when the DMCA permits reverse engineering.”
Huther Takes Reins At IIPI
August 4, 2004
IP Law Bulletin
“Brad Huther, a veteran adviser to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and a former envoy to the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, has taken over the helm at the International Intellectual Property Institute, a Washington based think tank that promotes sound IP policy for sustainable development.
Huther takes over as chief executive of the organization after IIPI founder Bruce A. Lehman resigned as CEO to join the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP as senior counsel in their Washington, DC office. Lehman will remain chairman of the organization’s board of directors.”
World Intellectual Property Day
by Karl F. Jorda
Winter/Spring 2004
Germeshausen Center Newsletter (Franklin Pierce Law Center)
“And in Washington on April 28, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), together with the International IP Institute (IIPI), held a lunch program for Members of Congress and their staffs to commemorate the World IP Day for the first time.”
Patents Worth a Pretty Penny, Expert Says
by Richard Lee
June 24, 2004
The Stamford Advocate
“Malackowski, a director of the International Intellectual Property Institute, told a meeting of the Fairfield-Westchester Counties Chapter of the Licensing Executives Society (USA & Canada) that intangible assets, such as patents on business procedures, are gaining in value at U.S. companies.”
Permissions on Digital Media Drive Scholars to Lawbooks
June 14, 2004
New York Times
Bruce A. Lehman…who was at the forefront of the contentious battles over digital rights legislation, has long insisted that criticisms and complaints about copyright controls are overblown. ‘There is an element in the user community that just wants to get it all for free,’ said Mr. Lehman . . . He added that demonizing copyright holders simply causes ‘fear where there really shouldn’t be any.'”
Experts Discuss Software Strategies In Developing Nations
by William New
May 24, 2004
National Journal’s Technology Daily
“Government and industry experts last week discussed ways to grow software industries in developing countries. The conference was organized by the Washington-based International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), a non-profit economic development organization and think tank that focuses on intellectual property rights systems in developing countries. ‘The growing importance of software industries to national economic growth is critical for international economic competitiveness,’ IIPI Project Director Eric Garduño said in a statement.”
Caribbean Governments Urged to Explore Opportunities in Intellectual Property Rights
April 24, 2004
The Island Sun (British Virgin Islands)
“. . . the President of the International Intellectual Property Institute, Bruce Lehman said the most pressing need for the Caribbean at this time was to strengthen the economy, and the CCJ (Caribbean Court of Justice) will enable the region to play a critical role in that regard. ‘Improving awareness of this topic will contribute to the economic advancement of our region, and I think its vase experience and enthusiasm will become evident in a very short time’ Chief Justice [of the CCJ] David Simmons said.”
Court Date: Launch Day of the CCJ may be Revealed
April 20, 2004
Daily Nation (Barbados)
The date for the inauguration of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) could be announced. This was hinted at by Chairman of the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission, Sir David Simmons, at a reception on Sunday evening to launch a conference on the Establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice and its Effect on Intellectual Property and International Trade. The three day conference is organised by the International Intellectual Property Institute and has drawn the participation of legal professionals from around the region.
How Developing Countries Can Develop Software
April 15, 2004
Pacific Business News
“Computer software professionals from around the world will come to Honolulu next month for an international conference on software development in developing nations. The conference, ‘Strategies for Building Software Industries in Developing Countries,’ will be sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based International Intellectual Property Institute . . .”
Gods And Monster
by Mark Dowie
January 1, 2004
Mother Jones
“Now that he’s stepped down from the Patent Office, Bruce Lehman can talk about pending patents, and so in August 2002 we met a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol in his modest office at the International Intellectual Property Institute, an organization he created after leaving office with a $ 1 million grant from the Bush administration. IIPI promotes the installation of patenting systems in every country of the world. As a private citizen, Lehman is free to reveal his true motivations for stifling Newman’s patent, and as a patent evangelist he’s happy to expound on the vital role intellectual-property laws play in industrial development, economic globalization, and the commercialization of biotech inventions. And he is more than willing to rebuke bio-Luddites such as Newman, whom he regards as anti-science.”
Watching the Overseers
by Bruce Berman
September/October 2003
Intellectual Asset Management
“A roundtable co-sponsored by the International Intellectual Property Institute and the United States Patent and Trademark Office was held last summer to bring to the public a candid discussion by IP thought-leaders about what impacts patent value . . . The New Emphasis on Patent Value: Opportunities & Challenges Roundtable, held at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, brought together eight people from diverse backgrounds for a discussion about patents and how they are used in business.”
Hawai’i Urged to Profit from Its Culture
by Sean Hao
October 22, 2003
The Honolulu Advertiser
“Hawai’i has several advantages when it comes to profiting from its unique music and arts. ‘This is a tropical island,’ said Lehman, president for the International Intellectual Property Institute. ‘This is a nice place to be. And Hawai’i has an audience that exceeds the population . . . One of the things that you want to do long-term is look at those unique cultural activities and have an economic development strategy that secures these things that you own and then leverages those.'”
Growing Anger Confronts Brand Industry Drug Pricing
October 22, 2003
Food and Drug Industry News
“The Drug industry can no longer use economic and legal arguments to justify the costs of drugs, said Richard DeGeorge, a professor of philosophy and business administration and director of the university’s International Center for Ethics in Business at the University of Kansas . . . said at an Oct. 7 conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the International Intellectual Property Institute.”
Rich Nations Taking Advantage of Tiered-Pricing Efforts
October 9, 2003
Food and Drug Administration News
“‘Merck recently offered its AIDS antiretroviral drugs based on three price bands,’ said Jeffrey Kemprecos, the company’s director of public affairs. ‘But some countries with large economies have been tying their price-control efforts to the sub-Saharan African price, gaming the system to save money,’ Kemprecos said Tuesday at an International Intellectual Property Institute conference in Washington, D.C. He did not mention specific countries by name.”
The Federal Circuit Comes of Age
by Sam Mamudi
September 2003
Managing Intellectual Property
“While many lawyers have welcomed the consistency brought by the Federal Circuit, some have accused the court of being too pro-patent. ‘If you’re representing an accused infringer, you probably don’t feel so good about the case [going before the Federal Circuit],’ says litigator Schwartz. Adds Bruce Lehman, president and chief executive officer of the International Intellectual Property Institute: ‘I think the court has ended up coming down on the side of precedents that tend to have a lower threshold for patentability.’ The evidence supports Lehman’s claim. A 1998 study by University of California, Berkeley law professor Mark Lemley found that while only 35% of patents were held valid before the Federal Circuit’s creation, 54% had been held valid by the court since 1982.”
World Economic Experts To Hold Conference On Innovation
by William New
August 21, 2003
National Journal’s Technology Daily – PM Edition
“The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will hold the conference featuring government officials, industry executives, academics and lawyers from around the world at its Paris headquarters Aug. 28-29. Scheduled U.S. participants include: Bruce Lehman, president and CEO of the Washington-based International Intellectual Property Institute . . . One likely participant in the conference said on Thursday that it will be significant because OECD is studying the economics of the patent system and because the United States appears to have agreed to the conference despite its traditional position that intellectual property should be an issue left to WIPO.”
Jordan: Importance of IP Protection Highlighted at Week Long Conference
August 12, 2003
Financial Times
“. . . forget gushing oil wells, good ideas will drive economies in the future, Intellectual Property (IP) experts said, a trend natural resource-starved countries like Jordan are moving to capitalize on. Professors, businessmen and lawyers from around the world told an audience attending the first day of a week long conference on IP rights that protecting those rights is essential to translating innovative ideas into a strong economy . . . ‘[IP] laws are also crucial in changing the national economic focus from selling commodities, whose prices globally are falling, to products built around a new idea or technology,’ said Bruce Lehman, president of the International Intellectual Property Institute.”
Invention International: Q&A
by Bob Buderi and Evan I. Schwartz
May 9, 2003
MIT Technology Review
“‘If you’re going to develop knowledge-based economies in other countries, and if they’re going to get rich, they have to have effective intellectual property systems…[IIPI is] an institution which would help people in developing countries understand how to use these new tools which they’ve been forced to accept as a result of trade negotiations,’ said Bruce Lehman.
Ideas, Not Products, Will Grow Wealth, Asia Told
by Jeanne Lim
March 24, 2003
Asia Computer Weekly
“Singapore: Most Asian countries still have a lot of catching up to do in the area of innovation, judging by the number of patents they filed last year. This is at a time when wealth is increasingly being generated by new ideas more than new products. Bruce Lehman, president and CEO of the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), revealed that with the exception of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, the rest of Asia are woefully behind in terms of the number of patents filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2002 . . . In the last few years, it has been helping countries such as China, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines to ‘utilise and harvest the fruits of the human mind,’ said Lehman.”
New Foe for Webcasters in Royalty Fight
by Jon Healey
February 7, 2003
Los Angeles Times
“But Bruce Lehman , president of the nonprofit International Intellectual Property Institute and former head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said entertainment companies had better get used to such demands as they shift to “high-tech methods of reaching their public and controlling their products” — an arena in which patent battles are commonplace.”
Slumping Record Labels Peer Uneasily into Web-shrouded Future
by John Soeder Plain Dealer Pop Music Critic
January 12, 2003
The Plain Dealer
“‘Ten years from now, you won’t have CDs. The future of music is online distribution,’ said Bruce Lehman, president of the International Intellectual Property Institute.”
Artists Need to Be Active on Internet Issues, Berman Says
January 8, 2003
Washington Internet Daily
“…meanwhile, International Intellectual Property Institute Pres. Bruce Lehman pointed to CD sales in Vietnam, which consisted almost solely of pirated copies controlled by Chinese mafia: ‘That’s the problem we need to address, not piracy by consumers but professional pirates.'”
Intellectual Property: The Promise and Plague of Digital-rights Management
by Drew Clark
January 7, 2003
National Journal’s Technology Daily
“Bruce Lehman, president of the International Intellectual Property Institute, also defended the promise of DRM technologies. He said they present ‘a system for business models to support artists that want to make a living, and to have more control than they have in a completely free Internet society where anyone can go online and download virtually anything for free.'”
Challenging Corporate Power
Host: Russel Mokhiber
December 3, 2002
WPFW 89.3 FM
Lee Gillespie-White, IIPI’s Projects Counsel, participated in a call-in radio show today focusing on pharmaceutical companies and the AIDS crisis in Africa . Russel Mokhiber’s “Challenging Corporate Power” runs on WPFW, a Pacifica Radio affiliate station in Washington , DC. Gillespie-White stated her views in the opening minutes of the program. “I do not represent the pharmaceutical industry nor am I here to defend the pharmaceutical industry. An attack on the intellectual property system is what I am concerned about,” said Gillespie-White. “We need to disentangle public health issues. A lack of funding and a lack of political will, not patents, are the real culprit in the war against AIDS.”
WHO/WTO study “off track” on impact of stronger IPR on drug prices, says IFPMA
September 9, 2002
Market Letter
“. . . However, the IFPMA adds that the WTO and the WHO should also have cited a study conducted in 2001 by Amir Attaran of Harvard University and Ms L Gillespie-White of the International Intellectual Property Institute. This study, published in the October 17, 2001, edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed clearly that antiretroviral drugs for the treatment of HIV/ AIDS were not patented throughout the majority of sub-Saharan African states, which proves that lack of access to these drugs in these countries is not due to patents, but to other factors, it says.”
Panelists Sharply Differ On Effectiveness of E-copyright Laws
January 8, 2002
National Journal’s Technology Daily
“‘. . . I want to disagree with the premise that recent changes in copyright law that recognize changes in technology is somehow an expansion of copyright,’ [Bruce Lehman] said. ‘It is an attempt to simply keep what we always had.’ Lehman argued that fair use is not a right but rather a defense against charges of copyright infringement based on various factors, including whether such copying interferes with the copyright holder’s commercial exploitation of the work . . . the reason IIPI is trying to evangelize strong copyright protection to developing nations is precisely because they lead to the creation of wealth.”
Patents or Poverty? A New Debate Over Poor AIDS Care in Africa
by Donald G. McNeil, Jr.
November 5, 2001
New York Times
“Professors of medicine, law and economics, who for the most part consider themselves advocates of the poor, are attacking each other over an issue raised by a study published Oct. 17 in the Journal of American Medical Association. The authors of the study are Dr. Amir Attaran, director of international health research at Harvard University’s Center for International Development, and Lee Gillespie-White of the International Intellectual Property Institute. The study draws the conclusion that poverty is the main deterrent to treatment.”
Patents said not to cut AIDS drug Access Study on Africa cites dearth of global aid
by John Donnelly
October 17, 2001
The Boston Globe
“With the exception of South Africa, drug patents are not a substantial barrier to treatment of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new study published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Instead, the report said, ‘the extreme dearth of international aid finance, rather than patents, is most to blame for the lack of antiretroviral treatment in Africa.’ It was written by Harvard’s Amir Attaran and Lee Gillespie-White of the International Intellectual Property Institute, a Washington think tank.”
Africa May Skirt Patent to Get Drugs
by John Donnelly
August 25, 2001
The Boston Globe
“WASHINGTON – Lost amid the noisy fighting over access to AIDS drugs in the poor world lies a startling fact: The vast majority of the medicines are not protected by patents in Africa, leaving no legal barrier for most cheap knockoff drugs to enter the markets. A survey now underway of multinational pharmaceutical companies has found that 84 percent of AIDS drugs are not under patent protection in Africa. The survey of patents is being done by Amir Attaran, a health specialist at the Center for International Development at Harvard, and Lee Gillespie-White of the International Intellectual Property Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit group . . .”
No Easy Cure
by Bruce Stokes
March 31, 2001
National Journal
“’To lower AIDS drugs prices, activists want to break the patents that guarantee pharmaceutical companies monopoly profits for a period of time. But this is ultimately not about patents,’ said Bruce A. Lehman, president of the International Intellectual Property Institute and the former head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. “It’s about how you come up with the money that enables you to get pharmaceuticals to people.”
David and Goliath Confront a Red Herring in the High Court
by Simon Barber
March 7, 2001
Business Day
“As a recent report by the Washington-based International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI) noted, ‘in the majority of sub-Saharan African countries where no patents exist there is still a dramatic lack of access to drugs. Similarly, there are tremendous access problems with medicines long off patent.'”
Patents
by Sabra Chartrand
January 29, 2001
The New York Times
“…Bruce Lehman, who ran [the U.S. PTO] from 1993 to 1998 and left to found a nonprofit group called the International Intellectual Property Institute, devoted to promoting intellectual property issues around the world. ‘Intellectual Property is a very big issue in trade,’ Mr. Lehman said [and emphasized the need for] ‘a strong Patent and Trademark Office to provide substantive background to support the issues.’”
Former US PTO Commissioner Calls for Outsourcing Patent Searching
January 29, 2001
IPO Daily News
“In a guest editorial in the current issue of Managing Intellectual Property magazine entitled ‘Crisis in the Patent System,’ former U.S. Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Bruce A. Lehman calls for outsourcing patent searching and examination. He says, “…much of what was traditionally done internally by patent offices will have to be out-sourced to take advantage of the greater ability of the private sector to utilize the latest technology and to recruit the most effective work-force.” He believes the USPTO should “…use its contracting authority to create a robust private sector capability to search and examine patents…”
Napster and Friends Under Fire!
by John Borland
January 27, 2001
ZDNet News
“Bruce Lehman thinks the digital copyright laws he helped write are in trouble, and it’s largely the Net’s fault… ‘I’ve had frustration for a long time that it seems like the only voices speaking about copyright and the protection of artists right now are those who say there shouldn’t be any rights,’ Lehman said Thursday. ‘I am absolutely amazed at the number of people who seem to believe there is morality in that.'”
Ex-PTO Chief Defends Copyright Law
by Drew Clark
January 24, 2001
National Journal Technology Daily
“The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is coming under increasing assault by computer users and copyright experts, but one important defender of the DMCA is fighting back to gain support for the law’s controversial approach to copyright violations. Former PTO Commissioner Bruce Lehman, now president of the International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI), told National Journal’s Technology Daily he would form a coalition to defend copyright law from a growing number of critics…”
Intellectual Property Rights Seen as Issue for 21st Century
by Marc Selinger
April 5, 1999
The Washington Times
“Bruce A. Lehman is trying to get the world economy ready for the 21st century. Mr. Lehman has formed a nonprofit organization, the International Intellectual Property Institute, to try to convince developing countries to adopt and enforce intellectual property laws . . .”