Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The groundbreaking Copyright Alert System set up a year ago by internet service providers and copyright holders to stop unauthorised music and film downloads, saw 1.3 million alerts sent out in it its first 10 months, according to a new report. And it expects to double in size this year.
Search engines don't cause internet piracy but they could do more to stamp it out, the UK Prime Minister's intellectual property advisor says in a new paper.
Intellectual property pundits have welcomed South African President Jacob Zuma’s decision to retain Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies in the position following South Africa’s May general elections. And Davies in an interview this week signalled that completing the national intellectual property policy may be a top priority.
Reflecting its growing place on the international policy agenda, nutrition was a major focus of last week’s World Health Assembly.
The intellectual property offices of the European Union, in their commitment to harmonise practices, recently published a Common Communication establishing a common practice on the scope of protection given to black and white trademarks in the EU.
Gavin Cloherty is associate director of scientific affairs at the US molecular diagnosis developer Abbott Molecular. Abbott has a long-standing history of developing tests for detecting and monitoring hepatitis, among other areas. With Intellectual Property Watch, Cloherty discussed the burden of hepatitis C, the process of diagnosis and the importance of diagnosis for curbing and treating the disease.
World Health Organization members last week approved a plan putting the UN health agency on track to renovating its headquarters in Geneva, reducing the number of buildings from 10 to three by eliminating the various longstanding temporary structures (including the restaurant) and constructing a new building adjacent to the existing main building. The main building also would be renovated.
The European Council today agreed on an approach for establishing a new legal framework for protecting trade secrets.
At the World Health Organization 135th Executive Board meeting this week, member states discussed improvements to cut down on lengthy World Health Assemblies, and adopted two reports for further discussion on surgical care and anaesthesia, and the health impact of air pollution.
The prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) stands high on the agenda of World Health Organization member countries, many of them said last week. Governments called for a multi-stakeholder approach to tackle the problem, governed by firm rules, and some asked for ways to regulate products that increase risk factors.
Faced with growing global concern over microbial resistance to antibiotic treatments, the World Health Assembly last week adopted a resolution to establish a global action plan on antimicrobial resistance.
The World Intellectual Property Organization committee on development closed last week with little to show after a week of unyielding opposing positions on every sensitive issue by several countries. Frustration was palpable as those issues were sent to the next session for further discussions, with the risk of renewed disagreement.