Original news and analysis on international IP policy
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.
The clock was ticking with only a day to go in this week’s meeting of a UN working group on biodiversity trying to reach an agreement on a draft protocol text on access and benefit-sharing.
Innovation is a key factor in economic growth but is not only about research as it is a system with many different interacting parts including R&D as one of those elements, a senior developed nations group representative said this week. Governments need to promote policies that integrate the cross-cutting nature of innovation and favour evidence based decision making, he said.