Original news and analysis on international IP policy
KAMPALA, Uganda -- The Forty-first Session of the Administrative Council of African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) held this month adopted the Regulations for the Implementation of the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, amidst protest from civil society organisations and farmer representatives.
The World Trade Organization General Council today agreed to a two-year extension for countries to adopt an amendment to the agency's intellectual property agreement intended to help small economies get affordable medical products. But a decision on non-violation complaints will be left to the December WTO ministerial in Buenos Aires.
VCAST, a UK company that makes available to its customers internet retransmissions of Italian television programmes stored in the cloud, must obtain right holders’ consent first, the Court of Justice of European Union (CJEU) ruled on 29 November.
President Trump's nominee to be the next director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Andrei Iancu, could receive Senate committee approval by the holidays if things line up just right. If appointed, he told a nomination hearing today that he would "evangelize" the IP system and make possible reform of the patent review process a high priority.
A committee of the United Nations General Assembly this week adopted a resolution highlighting the importance of - and setting out member state tasks for - growing science and technology, including expansion of intellectual property rights and innovation tailored to countries' development strategies.
The European Commission today announced plans to ratchet up the fight against counterfeiting and piracy, and to introduce more clarity in licensing standard-essential patents (SEPs). The first involves guidance on the 2004 EU directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRED); the second recommendations for making the relationship between patent owners and technology users more “balanced and efficient.”
US copyright law is supposed to apply only within US borders, not to actions done in Poland. But when a company in Poland streamed copyrighted TV shows into the US, that infringed US copyrights, according to a US trial court. This decision will be upheld on appeal, experts widely expect. Such an appellate decision, however, could expand the reach of US copyright law to a problematic extent. It will be tricky to find infringement in this case without also extending US copyright law to any online content posted anywhere on the globe.
The World Health Organization today issued two substantive reports on the problem of substandard and falsified medicines around the world, finding among other things that an estimated one in 10 medical products in low and middle income countries is either substandard or falsified.
The International Trademark Association (INTA) today issued a position paper calling for "minimal disruption" and strong intellectual property rights protection as the negotiations proceed on the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union, known as Brexit. The paper lists core principles and specific recommendations related to IP for both the UK and the EU.
On Monday, 27 November, the WHO published the recommendations of the overall programme review of the global strategy and plan of action on public, health innovation and intellectual property (EB142/14). The expert panel provided 33 recommendations which included 17 forward looking”high-priority actions” including on transparency and delinkage, writes Thiru Balasubramaniam.
Associations representing the life sciences industry in the United Kingdom and Europe today issued a call for cooperation on regulation between the UK and European Union on medicines regulation.
Geneva, 21 Nov (TWN) - A discussion document prepared by the Secretariat of the World Health Organization (WHO) proposes criteria to justify interventions with respect to medicines in transit. This document is prepared for the 6th meeting of the Member State Mechanism (MSM) to be held from 28 November to 1 December at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, writes Third World Network.