Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The third amendment of Patents Act 1970, in 2005, was a major breakthrough for Indian IP practice in patents. The current crop of judicial decisions, discussed in this note, has initiated the need to have a critical mass of judicial precedents streamlining law and rules governing patent practice in India, writes Kamakhya Srivastava.
Gilead's recently announced ARV licenses to the Medicines Patent Pool, although positive in some respects, still unreasonably limit the geographical access of key middle-income countries and restrict the sourcing of APIs and products to Indian companies, meaning that both generics companies and excluded countries will need to make strategic decisions to bypass the defects in the licenses, writes Brook Baker.
Chief Judge Paul R. Michel (Ret.), of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, saw hundreds of patent cases during his distinguished career and has a unique position from which to view and offer advice on efforts in the US Senate and House of Representatives to agree on changes to domestic patent law. Intellectual Property Watch recently had the opportunity to interview Judge Michel on prospects for substantive patent reform in the US, the effect on future cases involving domestic and foreign patents, likely constitutional challenges, and the "non-problem" of non-practicing entities.
India has at least seven diverse intellectual property (IP) legislations related to protection already in place. Its focus should therefore arguably be directed - along the lines of many other IP jurisdictions - on more stringent enforcement modus operandi of the IP rights. Is there scope for introducing yet another IP legislation – the utility model protection law - in the Indian IP landscape and if so, what should be its scope and implication, asks Swarup Kumar.
A Canadian bill to improve global access to medicines might get another shot in the new Parliament, writes Daniele Dionisio.
This week the United Nations meets in New York with the possibility of finding a way to end the HIV crisis that in the past two decades spread like wildfire and decimated societies in many developing countries, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa.
Discussions are heating up as never before on Brazil's copyright reform, and controversies involving the new administration as well as the collecting society (ECAD)'s alleged wrongdoings are jeopardising the last eight years of Lula's administration, according to an updated timeline and analysis by Pedro Paranaguá.
Government policymakers are stalling on trade liberalization while erecting new nontransparent trade barriers, writes Frederick Abbott.
Niels Louwaars of the Centre for Genetic Resources, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, discusses the importance of plant breeder’s rights. He makes the case for a carefully balanced protection for plant breeders and changes to patents in agriculture, in order to ensure a competitive, diversified supply of plant varieties and seeds.
A recent European Parliament resolution on a European Financial Transaction Tax could represent an important resource for a WHO-led initiative to find sustainable financing for research into diseases afflicting poor populations.