Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Chennai Patent Office in India last week overturned the patent on Valganciclovir, an expensive drug used to prevent an infection to which people with HIV/AIDS or organ recipients are susceptible, an Indian lawyers’ group said today. The patent office…
A new economically driven effort called the Copyright for Creativity Initiative is advocating the harmonisation of copyright exceptions across Europe, and is calling on the European Commission to act upon its 2008 Green Paper “Copyright in the Knowledge Economy” [pdf].…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch All the “noble announcements” made by EU and US officials about respect for the Doha Declaration on intellectual property trade and public health when negotiating the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) does not match…
Intellectual property rights and access to medicines were on the agenda at the first day of a biotechnology industry group’s annual convention yesterday. The group held a panel on IP rights and also released a policy statement on access to medicine in developing countries. The director of the US Patent and Trademark Office commented positively on the initiative.
An alternative initiative to promote access to medicine with a method mimicking market mechanisms means to create additional incentives for health innovation, authors of the proposal said yesterday. But other health actors have reservations.
A public event was organised yesterday to discuss how the Health Impact Fund (HIF) could fit within existing structures and what challenges it could face.
Negotiators at the World Intellectual Property Organization this week will address longstanding efforts by many WIPO members to begin in earnest text-based negotiations for a tool to better protect traditional knowledge and genetic resources.
In the United States, trade policy is generally considered an economic issue. But for developing countries like the Dominican Republic, it can be a matter of life and death, write Tanya Baytor and Patrick Griffith of Georgetown University Law Center.
A mechanism to watch the continuing implementation of development-oriented principles into the World Intellectual Property Organization’s work has now been found. For many, the Development Agenda is the most important agreement in WIPO’s recent past, and the mechanism - which will monitor, assess and report on its implementation - was a critical area of importance in ensuring it reaches its full potential.
An annual report from the Office of the United States Trade Representative on how well it considers other countries to be protecting and enforcing American intellectual property rights is now available. The so-called Special 301 report can be read here…
A coordination mechanism and a project on transfer of technology will dominate much of the last day of the World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property, but with two new projects approved the group has already made progress this week, according to sources.
The second edition of the Consumers International IP Watchlist has been published, with the conclusion that consumers are bearing collateral damage to the enforcement push by entertainment and media lobby groups encouraging stringent national legislations. Copyright laws and enforcement are changing, but mostly for the benefit of right holders, said the advocate group which encourages copyright exceptions.
The US Performance Rights Act got support from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, California) and Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D, Illinois) last week. The Performance Rights Act seeks to equalise the rights to compensation between performers of sound…