Year 2017

WHO: Hepatitis Death Toll Rising, Vaccination Works But Access To Tests And Medicines Still Issue

Hepatitis-related mortality is on the rise, despite the existence of an efficient vaccine for hepatitis B and a cure for hepatitis C, according to the World Health Organization hepatitis report 2017 published today. One of the issues is that a majority of people are unaware of their condition due to limited access to affordable hepatitis testing. The price of the hepatitis C medicines has decreased in low-income countries, but still remains a barrier in upper-middle income and high-income countries, the WHO said.

African Civil Society, Farmers Demand ARIPO Lift Blackout On Protocol Protecting Plant Varieties

Civil society and farmers allege communication blackout from by the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) about a protocol protecting new plant varieties. The 2015 protocol was highly criticised by those organisations as endangering traditional practices of African farmers. Draft regulations could not be adopted in December, but the regional organisation, according to the civil society and farmer groups, is keeping the outcome of the December meeting secret.

Industry Group Nears Completion Of List Of Geographical Indications Worldwide

A private sector project to identify and compile all geographical indications in the world in a database is expected to be completed in the fall. The compilation is aimed at helping intellectual property professionals, trademark owners, and other users in their decision-making, and will be freely available, according to the organization for an international Geographical Indications Network (oriGIn). There is currently no international register of GIs.

Strong Application Of GIs May Be Detrimental To Generic Products, Speakers Say

The protection of geographical indications could impede the ability of long-term producers to continue using what they consider as being generic names, according to several speakers at an event last month at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The discussion is also ongoing at the World Trade Organization in the context of barriers to trade. The side event focused on the case of danbo cheese, a Danish cheese manufactured in several countries, particularly in Uruguay.

The Web Is At A Crossroads – New Standard Enables Copyright Enforcement Violating Users’ Rights

Parminder Jeet Singh writes: The World Wide Web today stands at a crossroads, as its standards body, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), considers the demand of big content providers to provide them with the facility to be able to control user devices for ensuring that their content is not copied. This facility is called the Encrypted Media Extension (EME), which enables these companies to put digital rights management (DRM) into the user's browser, whether the user wants it or not, and whether such restrictions are as per the user's local national laws or not.

Germany Brings Health Issues To G20; First Health Ministers Meeting In May

Global health matters are entering into the Group of Twenty (G20) agenda under the German presidency of the group, which started in December 2016. The first-ever G20 Health Ministers' meeting is scheduled to take place in May, before the regular G20 meeting in July. This week, a professor from the Graduate Institute of Geneva explained how health has become part of the G20 agenda.