Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The World Intellectual Property Organization committee on copyright opened today with an agenda of a potential treaty to protect broadcasting organisations against piracy, and copyright limitations and exceptions for libraries, archives, educational and research institutions, as well as for persons with disabilities other than visual impairment.
The World Trade Organization (WTO)’s 20th anniversary celebrations are about to reach a climax with the 15–18 December Nairobi Ministerial Conference — the first to be held in Africa — following a celebratory Public Forum in Geneva in October. Just over a week before Nairobi, another anniversary is slipping by almost unnoticed. Today, December 6, is the 10th anniversary of a decision that the Director-General at the time, Pascal Lamy, hailed as confirmation “once again that members are determined to ensure the WTO’s trading system contributes to humanitarian and development goals.”
Two days of informal consultations last week did not bring World Intellectual Property Organization members to agreement on a work programme for the next session of its committee on the law of patents. Developed and developing countries have different views on the work of the committee, with developing countries seeking work on patent on health, and limitations and exceptions to patent rights, while developed countries are more interested in work-sharing between patent offices and protecting the confidentiality of information between patent advisers and their clients.
The habit of patenting innovative products is being challenged by ever faster innovation cycles, the growing need for collaboration and co-invention, and what some classical patentees see as a “virus” of open source licensing. The tenth edition of the IP Summit, hosted in Berlin this year, heard some interesting stories from the smart home and smart car business.
European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem, speaking to the President of the German Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, announced reading rooms for the consolidated texts of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in all capitals of the EU member states.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- A law to regulate intellectual property derived from research and development conducted using public funds has boosted the number of patent applications filed and granted by universities and research institutions in the past five years.
The stretch run for Europe's Unitary Patent System (UPS) again took centre stage at the Premier Cercle IP Summit 2015 in Berlin yesterday. Eyes are on Germany for the ratification of the UPS. Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer, president of the German Patent Office, in the keynote speech assured the 300 hundred participants Germany was preparing for the new system and called out to industry to prepare for the change, saying: “Check your portfolio now.”
Colombia has a decision to make. A full year has passed from the November 24, 2014 request by iFarma, Misión Salud and CIMUN for a declaration of the public interest regarding the cancer drug imatinib (marketed by Novartis as Gleevec/Glivec), the first step on the path toward a compulsory license in Colombia. Thus far, Colombia’s Ministry of Health and Social Protection has failed to act one way or another, leaving patients in limbo and the government at the mercy of a Swiss pharmaceutical giant that reported revenue of over $57.9 Billion USD in 2013, write James Love and Andrew S. Goldman.
A seminar on patents and availability of medicines in developing countries yesterday considered whether patents constitute a barrier to access. For the private sector, patents are essential to the innovation system, for others they maintain high prices and should be licensed for easier access. Beyond patents, biologics seem to be taking over the pharmaceutical industry, and the complexity of manufacturing biosimilars might well leave traditional generic manufacturers by the wayside.
Separately, a side event at WIPO looked at IP management strategies in private-public partnerships in agriculture and health technologies.
The United Nations Development Programme joined forces with the World Blind Union to prepare a new report aimed at facilitating Asia-Pacific countries’ ratification of a treaty designed to help visually-impaired people access special format books.
Latin American and Caribbean countries have tabled a new proposal for next week’s meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on copyright. The proposal calls for analysing copyright related to the digital environment.
For the first time in its history, the G10 Commission, an oversight body over the German Intelligence Services, will go to court to challenge decisions by the German government and the services, German Public Broadcasting and the Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed last night.