Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The health ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) most developed countries have issued a declaration on antimicrobial resistance and Ebola. The governments said they would explore innovative economic incentives to promote research and development of new antibiotics, such as a global antibiotic research fund and a market entry reward mechanism.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will launch in November the Enable Makeathon, a programme aimed at developing affordable solutions for persons with disabilities in rural areas.
A new report from Chatham House presenting suggestions for novel business models for antibiotics calls for models in which the return on investment in research and development is not dependent on the volume of sales, also known as delinkage.
At mid-point of the annual World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly, numerous items are unresolved, and several facilitators are in charge of finding consensus on draft decisions, in particular on norm-setting issues and the budget of the UN organisation.
The governing body of the international plant treaty is holding its annual meeting this week with a number of issues to go through, in particular the adoption of the next biennium budget, and the funding strategy of the treaty.
In a new report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights examines the implications of patent policy for the right to science and culture. She gives a number of recommendations calling for countries to refrain from granting stringent patent protection, and respect their human right obligations.
The World Intellectual Property Organization governing body started examining the work of its committees yesterday, with the hope of solving some issues that those committees were unable to solve during the year. This included the work programmes of the committees on copyright and on trademarks and geographical indications.
At the World Intellectual Property Organization annual General Assembly this week, the financing of the Lisbon system protecting appellations of origin is the subject of intensive discussions cutting across several agendas. Attempts are being made by non-Lisbon members to separate the Lisbon system’s funding from other agreements, and in the course of the debate the broader WIPO budgetary system came under analysis.
The 1994 World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has been a landmark pact in the IP world and beyond. Now on the 20th anniversary of its entry into force, former TRIPS negotiators and other experts have come out with a book recounting the remarkable set of circumstances and compromises that took place to bring this agreement into being.
Access to medicines and innovations was the subject of a panel organised at the World Trade Organization Public Forum last week. After 20 years of the WTO intellectual property agreement, panellists looked at the impact of the agreement on access to medicines, and in particular the use of its flexibilities. In addition, a delegate of India detailed the legal-political aspects of an upcoming WTO decision on disputes for harmful actions that do not technically violate any WTO rules.
World Intellectual Property Organization members called for swift adoption of new treaties at the outset of the organisation's annual General Assemblies this week.
The fate of the World Intellectual Property Organization committee dedicated to finding solutions to protect traditional knowledge, generic resources, and folklore is being actively discussed informally at the organisation's general assembly.