USPTO seeks to block WIPO open source meeting.
(WIPO) is not the place for discussions about ‘open source’ software (…) a senior U.S. official argued on Monday. Reviewing the original mission of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), said Lois Boland, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) acting director of international relations, it is ‘clearly limited to the protection of intellectual property. To have a meeting whose primary objective is to waive or remove those protections seems to go against the mission.’
Boland was referring to a July request by a group of scientists, academics, open-source advocates and others for a meeting at WIPO on ‘open and collaborative projects,’ including open-source software. The WIPO secretariat initially replied favorably to the idea.
Well, that’s a shame. Let’s hope WIPO reconsider, because it really would be an interesting idea to have everyone involved talking about this stuff.