 ISPs’ liability for user-uploaded content – an Italian perspective
June 2013
 Ernesto Apa and Federica De Santis (Rome/Milan, Italy)
In December 2012, the Milan Court of Appeals ruled in favor of three Google executives in the ‘Google Vividown’ case – finding them ‘not guilty’ of unlawful data processing pursuant to Italian data protection laws. The case stemmed from a video showing an autistic boy being bullied, which was then uploaded to the Google Video platform. This case debated the issue on whether, and to what extent, ISPs should be liable for third-parties’ infringements carried out via their systems, or instead whether they may rely on the liability exemptions under the E-commerce Decree.
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Brazil’s new law is not tough enough to fight electronic crimes
May 2013
 Professor Renato Opice Blum (São Paulo, Brazil)
After 15 years of discussion, Brazil’s government has enacted a law that typifies computer-related crimes and covers important issues such as electronic device invasion, unauthorisedremote access and interruption of web services.
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How the IBA is facilitating the development of ‘Information Law’
April 2013
 Christopher Rees (London, UK)
Information as an asset class has outstripped all other forms of property and this throws up the challenge for us as lawyers; that the law will need to adapt both its forms of protection and redress to accommodate this phenomenon.
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Crossroads of preliminary injunction proceedings and patent revocation action in Hungary
March 2013
 Eszter Szakács (Budapest, Hungary)
Protecting market exclusivity by preliminary injunction is a crucial matter to pharmaceutical patent owners in Hungary just as much as anywhere else, and avoiding it is equally important to their opponents.
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Graphene patent wars heat up
February 2013
[Editor's note: this article first appeared in Global Insight online articles - news analysis, January 2012]
 Arthur Piper (Nottingham, UK)
If the number of patents for a new technology is anything to go by, graphene is one of the hottest nanotech developments to emerge so far. There were over 7,350 patents on the carbon-based material by the end of December 2012, with 18 per cent of those filed in the previous 12 months, according to a study by the technology strategy company Cambridge IP.
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Intermediary liability under Indian law: Twitter
January 2013
 Rodney D Ryder and Ashwin Madhavan (New Delhi, India)
A look at the various liability issues that could be raised in India in terms of content on Twitter. This article discusses the legal risks that apply, or potentially apply, to users of Twitter. It also considers Twitter as an entity if it fails to remove objectionable content posted by its users on its website.
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Regulating IP rights for DJs in Spain
December 2012
 José Domínguez Leandro, Rodrigo González Ruiz and María Peligro Formoso (Madrid, Spain)
DJs have become very influential within music scene, but their relevance from an artistic or commercial point of view has not been matched by regulation, considering the impact that DJs have on recording industry. As a consequence, DJs in Spain have been (and still are) ignored by intellectual property legislation, leading to a legal vacuum that is damaging for all those involved in music industry.
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Compulsory licensing under the Indian patent system: a potential growth driver for industries
November 2012
 Mustafa Motiwala, Barasha Baruah Pathak and Shruti Thampi (Mumbai, India)
Until recently, the provisions of compulsory licensing - though in place under Indian patent law for some years - did not get much attention. However, compulsory licensing came to the forefront in discussions across the manufacturing sector - particularly in the pharmaceutical industry - when the Controller of Patents in India passed a landmark order pertaining to compulsory licensing on 9 March 2012.
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‘Content is king’: using the Competition and Consumer Act to regulate ‘net neutrality’ and access to content in Australia
October 2012
 Chris Taylor (Sydney, Australia)
The ability to control content has become the latest battleground in the struggle for access to consumers in a convergent online marketplace. This paper uses an Australian case study to present an alternative to the current trend of regulating access to content.
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Measures on compulsory licensing for patent exploitation in China
September 2012
 David C Buxbaum (Guangzhou, China)
Pursuant to the Patent Law and the Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) promulgated Measures on Compulsory Licensing for Patent Exploitation in China, effective on 1 May 2012 (‘Compulsory Measures’). The purposes of the Compulsory Measures are to establish procedures for granting and providing royalties for compulsory licensing of invention patents and utility model patents. The SIPO is responsible for carrying out these procedures. These procedures conform to the provisions of the Patent Law, Chapter VI, Articles 48–58.
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Fighting counterfeit in Lebanon
August 2012
 Rany J Sader (Beirut, Lebanon)
Intellectual property (IP) is increasingly becoming one of the main priorities of both businesses and individuals in the 21st Century. Its value, despite the difficulty in measuring it due to its nature, has become a major concern in today's economy, referred to as the ‘new IP economy’. Few things happen in this new economy without ideas leading to innovation: it is the creation, acquisition and exploitation of exclusive, valuable, and powerful IP rights, which build strong and successful businesses. These rights are becoming major players in the growth of multinationals as much as SMEs, thus inside any strategic or forward thinking entities. IP rights (or IPRs) are treated now as core corporate assets (intellectual assets or IAs).
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Advertising at the Olympics – let the games begin!
July 2012
 Susan Natland and Gregory Phillips (Orange County, California, US)
The Olympics are a marketing bonanza, and companies pay millions of dollars to be counted among the official Olympic sponsors and to participate in the exclusive advertising that follows. The 2012 London Olympics kicked off on 27 July and the organisers have set the tone for combating unauthorised use of the ‘Olympic’ trademarks and other forms of ‘ambush’ marketing.
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Jury still deliberating on Twitter’s usefulness in the legal sector
June 2012
 Robert Wakulat (Toronto, Canada)
When Rupert Murdoch, of all people, started using Twitter in early 2012 (@rupertmurdoch), he generated considerable curiosity and speculation as to his true intentions. There would obviously have been a business angle involved, and early tweets did promote his studio’s latest films. More importantly, the octogenarian media mogul had attracted approximately 50,000 followers by the end of his second day. Whether this experiment ultimately meets Murdoch’s expectations is a question that is likely shared by many businesses and professionals who join the site to further their commercial success.
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The editors of Convergence are looking for new contributions to the publication. If you’d like to write something (anything from 500 word case updates to 2,000 word in depth articles), please email emily.silvester@int-bar.org with your idea to find out more.
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