Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Thirteen years after publication of the landmark report, “Tobacco Company Strategies to Undermine Tobacco Control Activities at the World Health Organization,” little has changed and industry manipulations continue, one of the lead authors has said.
Lower-income countries receive much less attention in terms of clinical trial research, according to a study published in this month’s World Health Organization (WHO) Bulletin. The study also underscored the value and importance the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) provides as a resource for evaluating the distribution of clinical trials around the world, and for providing information for future policy on health R&D.
Washington, DC - The state of creative industries and importance of intellectual property protection for content creators in the digital age was on display on 4 June at the 2013 World Creators Summit (WCS) in Washington, DC.
The White House today announced “major steps to improve innovation in high tech patents” by restricting activities of “patent assertion entities,” also known as “patent trolls.” The list included five executive actions and seven legislative recommendations.
Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, today gave some hints about upcoming regulations intended to ensure competition in cross-border European internet.
Geographical indications, a European invention, have attracted interest in a number of developing countries. According to several speakers at a recent industry conference on the subject, GIs can provide economic sustainability for rural families. In Africa, two cases were provided to illustrate the role of the valorisation of a particular resource and the ancestral know-how of women, promoting their social and financial autonomy.
The European Court of Justice in a decision dated 30 May ordered Sweden to pay a lump sum of €3 million euros for its delay in transposing the controversial 2006 EU data retention directive into national law in time.
Audiovisual content should be out of scope for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), but protection of European geographical indications is covered and intellectual property issues in general “explored,” European Union governments wrote in their draft negotiation mandate for the Commission, dated 21 May.
World Intellectual Property Organization delegates advanced work on a draft treaty text on industrial design this week but were left divided on the opportunity of holding a high-level meeting to adopt such a treaty in 2014. One of the sticking points was whether to include an article on technical assistance and capacity building in the text of the draft treaty. The committee also decided to continue work on the protection of country names in the context of trademarks.
A US report released this week found that the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has helped to make antiretroviral drug supply chains more efficient and reliable, but still contains several weaknesses that need to be addressed.
The protection of country names was discussed today by World Intellectual Property Organization members with a more amiable approach than on how to include technical assistance in a draft treaty text on industrial designs. The question of the convening of a high-level meeting to adopt the potential treaty was also discussed with dissension between developing and developed countries.
The US film industry and advocates for the blind joined forces today to urge World Intellectual Property Organization negotiators to keep treaty talks focussed on the core issue of making more books available to the blind and visually impaired. The joint statement appeared to be aimed at reining in stakeholders on both sides of the international debate.