On March 4, 2020, WIPO’s Coordination Committee (CoCo) nominated Daren Tang of Singapore for the post of WIPO Director General. Mr. Tang has been the CEO of Singapore’s IP Office (IPOS) since 2015 and the Chair of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) since May 2017.
The short-list for the 2020 ABC International Excellence Award in Accessible Publishing was announced on February 10, 2020. 3 publishers and 3 initiatives are competing for the two awards in the respective categories. The names of the winners will be unveiled at the awards ceremony taking place at the London Book Fair on March 10, 2020.
On 24 December 2019, Khaled Lotfy’s final possible appeal against his five-year sentence was rejected. His publishing house was then excluded from the biggest book fair in Egypt.
On 7 January 2020, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) confirmed that it had received ten candidatures for the position of Director General ahead of the 30 December 2019 deadline.
Close scrutiny showed a more complex but also more positive answer for both the UK and US.
IPA D&I envoy, Michiel Kolman interviews Elsevier’s Simon Holt and Springer Nature’s Kirsty Bone about their experiences of having a disability and working in the publishing industry. This is a long but fascinating read.
October and the first days of November were again very busy, with visits to four different countries and three book fairs in the course of three weeks.
SCCR 39 concluded this evening with an agreement found on how to keep the Exceptions and Limitations discussion moving forward and the other agenda items wrapped up and a possible new issue raised in the chamber.
The second day of discussions on the broadcasting treaty were mainly conducted behind closed doors with the plenary chamber finally filling at 17:40 for a presentation of conclusions.
The first day closed with Dr Kenneth Crews waiting to be grilled by delegates and observers. He was given the opportunity this morning, but the highlights today were the side events and the ripples from some late-night messages to delegates.