Original news and analysis on international IP policy
A coalition of some two dozen non-governmental organisations yesterday sent a letter to the United States Trade Representative raising concern about the impact on access to medicines of intellectual property provisions in a regional, Asia-Pacific trade agreement, known as the…
In between climate change conferences, Christiana Figueres, newly appointed executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was in Geneva yesterday to attend a ministerial meeting convened by the Swiss and Mexican governments on climate change finance.
Developed countries are looking for ways to address the ongoing lack of intellectual property enforcement and efforts to bypass international trade obligations in the four biggest emerging global economies, as well as emulation of this behaviour by other emerging economies in particular as the four countries have a stronger voice in international fora, a panel of United States trade experts said this week.
The third attempt at concluding negotiations on a draft protocol text on international biodiversity access and benefit-sharing will take place in Montreal on 18-21 September, according to official sources. Delegates at the meeting will try to agree on the text,…
The second meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization Working Group on the Development of the Lisbon System (Appellations of Origin) is taking place in Geneva from 30 August – 3 September. At this meeting WIPO was expected to present…
Barely a year after her appointment as the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Administrator for Policy and External Affairs, Arti Rai has resigned her position and will go back to a faculty position at Duke University Law School,…
Sagging stock prices in the second quarter of 2010 attracted the interest of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the foundation added the Goldman Sachs Group and Monsanto to its portfolio, according to the Dow Jones Newswires. The foundation…
German biotechnology company Bayer has met resistance in Brazil where the Paraná Federal Court revoked the authorisation for the commercial release of the company’s “Liberty Link” genetically modified maize on 27 July, according to a press release posted on the…
The global AIDS community meeting in Vienna last week ended with renewed determination to fight the epidemic but underlined an urgent need for increased funding to sustain scientific advances and universal access. Some warned against an intellectual property rights enforcement push threatening global access in particular through bilateral and regional trade agreements.
A last-chance negotiation of a draft protocol text on biodiversity access and benefit-sharing has been given yet another chance as delegates parted ways on Friday in Montreal without an agreement but with a tentative plan to reconvene to try to tie it up before a major UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in October.
Key international agencies for health, trade and intellectual property on Friday jointly organised a symposium on access to medicines in an effort to gather information and expertise as a basis of a collaborative response to the challenges of public health.
The 18th International AIDS conference opened its doors in Vienna on Sunday with a purpose of keeping the HIV issue high among international priorities in the context of a global economic crisis, and to promote universal access to treatment.