Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck will donate its entire library of natural products to the Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research along with a grant, the institute announced this week. The library, one of the world's largest, will be open for researchers around the world.
This week the United Nations meets in New York with the possibility of finding a way to end the HIV crisis that in the past two decades spread like wildfire and decimated societies in many developing countries, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa.
Governments should refrain from restricting the flow of information on the internet, and the private sector should not be in charge of policing it, a United Nations adviser on freedom of opinion and expression said last week in a report. He also criticised disconnection of users on intellectual property rights grounds.
A new fund has been established to help developing countries ratify and implement the Nagoya protocol on access and benefit sharing, the UN Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) said last week.
Consumers International today invited comments and proposals for a set of proposed amendments to include access to knowledge standards in the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection.
Negotiators at the UN World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva will have a new conference hall in which to debate in 2013, with construction starting this summer, according to a press release.
A lawyer with experience representing copyright holders such as authors and museums today was named the top copyright official in the United States government.
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) signed an agreement with pharmaceutical manufacturer Sanofi on 30 May for a three-year research project on nine neglected tropical diseases that will come with intellectual property rights on research results for both sides, according to a press release from the international organisation in Switzerland.
Outgoing United States Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today gave near-complete approval of legislation to reform US patent law which is awaiting action in the House of Representatives.
The European Commission has issued a new draft customs regulation that it says addresses past concerns over wrongful seizures of generic drug shipments transiting through European ports. But the new regulation does not substantively change existing rules, it said, and civil society groups say it does not go far enough. The EU regulation is the subject of a World Trade Organization dispute settlement case.
The World Health Organization Executive Board last week requested more details on the organisation's planned reform and established a consultative process for the reform, according to sources.
Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised countries today concluded their annual meeting, this year held in Deauville, France, with a communiqué bearing extensive discussion of the internet, intellectual property rights, and innovation - and a call for the World Intellectual Property Organization to step up work. In fact, it had a lot more to say about these issues than it did about the global economy or trade.