Original news and analysis on international IP policy
After hours of late night discussion, the European Union Foreign Affairs Council of Ministers meeting in Luxembourg Friday finally excluded the audiovisual sector from the negotiation mandate for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Recent news about the United States National Security Agency (NSA)'s secret programmes to collect the records of domestic telephone calls in the US and international internet activity has dominated headlines. The revelation has spurred countless conversations about the ability of government agencies and companies to monitor private communications of individuals.
Three Geneva-based international organisations are continuing their collaboration on issues of health and innovation policy as it cuts across intellectual property rights by planning a 5 July symposium on "changing business models" in medical innovation.
The United States Supreme Court came to a decision yesterday on the case of Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., striking down Myriad’s patent on isolating human genes from the bloodstream.
Starting next week, Marrakesh, Morocco, will be the site of a two-week high level conference expected to yield a treaty facilitating the international access to books for blind and visually impaired people. Stakes are high, not only for the beneficiaries, but also for the industry worried that the copyright system might be endangered by the new treaty, introducing limitations to copyright.
To what extent can global intellectual property rules address in an effective manner the needs of the most vulnerable members of society? This is the key question with which member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) are faced as they prepare to meet next week for a diplomatic conference, in Marrakesh, that should result in the adoption of a treaty to facilitate access to copyrighted works by visually impaired persons and persons with print disabilities.
Poland’s Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski has called on the country’s Ministry of Justice to create and integrate intellectual property courts into the country’s legal system. Under the plan, the new entities would become departments of regular courts, and they would be solely responsible for handling cases involving intellectual property, including disputes related to authors’ rights, trademarks and patents.
The United Nations Human Rights Council today adopted a resolution urging governments to encourage technology development and transfer and to apply intellectual property rights measures in ways that avoid creating barriers to trade in “affordable, safe, efficacious and quality medicines.” The resolution includes references to IP flexibilities in international trade law and to “delinkage” of R&D costs with the price of health products.
Draft legislation updating UK copyright exceptions is out for comment, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released an updated guidance document on pandemic influenza risk management, which includes the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework for the sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits that was discussed by member states during the 66th World Health Assembly (WHA) in May.
Ten years after applying for membership, Croatia is finally joining the European Union on 1 July 2013. Tanja Rajić, senior associate at PETOSEVIC, explains how six years of accession negotiations and the adoption of the acquis communautaire have affected intellectual property protection in Croatia and prepared it for becoming a member state.
The impact of intellectual property rights on the transfer of ‘green’ technology was brought up to the World Trade Organization committee on intellectual property this week with divided points of view. In addition, a discussion on cost-effective innovation was criticised by some developing countries as side-tracking the committee's objectives, and the European Union's planned revision of its tobacco products directive was disapproved by some producer countries.