theglobaljournal.net: Latest activities of group Betty King

Who Should Govern the Internet?

2011-05-23T21:55:21Z

The policies and mechanisms for Internet governance were the subject of discussion at the US Mission in Geneva (May 20) in preparation for the 6th annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) scheduled for September in Nairobi, Kenya.

The roles of government, civil society and the commercial sector were all discussed although no conclusions were reached other than a vague commitment to keep the Internet open to all.

Google's chief promoter, Vinton Cerf, one of the founders of the Internet, delivered a prerecorded address from the US, underlining his view that governments should not “have a monopoly on Internet policy development.”

Cerf acknowledged that the UN favors a government approach to regulating the Internet but that Google firmly opposes this, “because the private sector is not only a stakeholder but (also) the providers and the owners of the Internet and should have a role to play in the IGF.”

At present, the California-based company ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) administers all technical and policy aspects of the World Wide Web, including domain names and IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.

Although not discussed in Geneva, a hot subject on the Nairobi agenda is sure to be the recent licensing by ICANN of the controversial pornographic domain name .xxx and the growing use of social websites in fomenting rebellion in the Arab world and elsewhere.

The explosion of the Internet and mobile technology throughout the developing world has also increased concerns about how best to keep the Internet open while curbing its abuse.

Alice Wanjira-Munya, who chairs the organizing committee for the Nairobi forum, told the Geneva meeting that Africa is emerging as a major player in Internet governance. “The role of civil society is very important,” when regulating things from banking security to using phones for money transactions.

Ambassador Betty King, of the US Mission in Geneva said the meeting was a continuation of US efforts "to demonstrate the importance of a free and multi-stakeholder Internet for democratic societies and vibrant market economies."

Global Patent System Marks Two Millionth Filing

2011-04-15T14:36:33Z

The Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) received its two millionth international patent application in April, a landmark which WIPO hopes will encourage companies and inventors in multiple countries to seek patents.

WIPOs Patent Corporation Treaty (PCT) launched in 1978 was designed to promote information sharing among patent offices and avoid duplication. Until a few years ago, the United States and Europe were the largest users. East Asia is however, quickly catching up with a registered increase in applications last year from China, South Korea and Japan.

The two millionth application was filed by the US-based mobile technology company Qualcomm. A few days earlier, China’s Zoom Technologies announced in Beijing that it will develop mobile phones based on Qualcomm's third-generation," mobile technology.

The US Ambassador to international organizations in Geneva, Betty King, said she was pleased that a US company is being honored for its filing and noted that “Qualcomm is now not just an American Company, but a company with global operations.”

It took 26 years for WIPO to receive the first one million PCT applications, according to WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. “Rapidly growing use of the PCT over the past six years – the time it took to go from one to two million international patent applications – reflects increasing investments in innovation and the growing importance of protecting innovation.”

Under the PCT approximately 160,000 international patent applications are filed every year. The resulting database is an important collection of information about the ‘state of the art’ in all fields of technology and can be used by companies and individual inventors to understand what the competition is doing and inspire further innovation.

UN Efficiency

2011-02-19T16:54:15Z

After nearly a year at the head of the American mission in Geneva, US Ambassador to the UN, Betty King, gave a press conference on December 16. An exercise that she admits is not her favorite occupation in Geneva, or anywhere else for that matter. She has not failed in her duty to keep an eye on the numerous prominent topics. And it wouldn’t be fair to her teams to ignore the unprecedented changes taking place in the American presidency since the arrival of President Obama. However, the Ambassador has not said much about one of her favorite subjects, namely the tricky and ongoing issue of intellectual property. On the other hand, she has spoken out about the American authorities’ concern to see a clear improvement in the efficiency of the UN machine. Fewer meetings, more efficiency, fewer addenda and more results. There hasn’t been a wikileak, but nevertheless we can detect a certain impatience - extremely understandable, as it happens.

So let’s salute Ambassador Betty King’s courage, in a world where most people look down at the toes of their shoes as soon as the vocabulary becomes less consensual.