Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The World Health Organization this week is holding an information consultation with member states on the UN agency's engagement with “non-state actors.” The meeting follows a request by member states at the January WHO Executive Board to pursue discussions on a framework for the organisation's engagement with non-state actors, which has been changing in recent years.
This morning, the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on traditional knowledge issued a revised set of draft articles of an international instrument aimed at protecting traditional knowledge against misappropriation.
The World Intellectual Property Organization meeting on traditional knowledge and folklore meeting this week was abruptly adjourned by the chair this afternoon, to reconvene tomorrow morning, with a head-on challenge to governments.
World Intellectual Property Organization members today launched a marathon meeting to advance work on a potential legal instrument to protect traditional knowledge and folklore from misappropriation and exploitation. The committee, which has been convening for well over 10 years, is hoping to finalise texts over the next two weeks.
The World Intellectual Property Organization committee on trademarks could not agree this week to recommend the convening of a high-level meeting to adopt a treaty on industrial designs.
Geographical indications appear in the name of the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on trademarks, but had been neglected there for years, merely appearing on the agenda. Now the issue has actively returned to the committee, seemingly challenging efforts in a parallel working group at WIPO.
This week, Jamaica tabled a proposal at the World Intellectual Property Organization for a non-binding instrument that would provide a guideline on the protection of country names against misleading trademarks for intellectual property offices and trademark practitioners. The proposal was received with interest by some member states while others, like the United States and South Africa, raised strong concerns.
World Intellectual Property Organization delegates are trying to find a way out of a dividing line on how to address technical assistance in a potential new treaty on industrial designs. A new non-paper by the chair of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical indications (SCT) was released this morning. At stake is the committee's recommendation on the convening of a high level meeting to agree on the treaty.
The World Intellectual Property Organization committee on trademarks will address three main issues next week. Among them, delegates will look to advance a draft treaty facilitating the international registration of industrial designs, and try to agree on how to address technical assistance in that draft treaty. In addition, the United States has a proposal to invite into the committee discussions on a proposed revision of the Lisbon Agreement on the Protection of Appellations of Origins, and Jamaica is pursuing its effort at a stronger international soft law for the protection of country names against use as trademarks.
Traditional medical knowledge would be best protected through liability rules instead of patents, according to a book exploring the applicability of intellectual property rights to traditional medical knowledge protection, and in particular if IP rights are suitable to promote the goals of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.