Original news and analysis on international IP policy
A key committee focused on patent law at the World Intellectual Property Organization in seeking to establish its new work programme last week discussed a proposal to better protect the confidentiality of information passed between patent advisers and their clients. But the meeting ended in no decision, and the issue is expected to come up again when the patent committee next meets in October 2010.
Offering no details - as is their standard - government negotiators for a global anticounterfeiting treaty yesterday declared a commitment to try to find ways to increase transparency and inclusion of public input in the secretive talks. But they stopped short of actually committing to increasing transparency and inclusion.
The latest available text on future work at the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on the Law of Patents is available from the IP Watch website. The draft emerged this evening.
US software maker Microsoft’s General Counsel Brad Smith in Brussels today proposed a multistakeholder dialogue on cloud computing in Europe aimed at opening up its potential, including through building confidence, government action and harmonisation of national policies. “In Europe and…
Motion Picture Association of America head Dan Glickman is moving from protecting intellectual property rights to protecting the rights of displaced people worldwide. Glickman announced today he will leave his position as chairman and CEO of the MPAA on 1…
The agenda of the seventh round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations has been published, ending months of speculation and concern about the details of the secretive, high-impact talks. No, just kidding. Actually, the agenda for the 26-29 January meeting…
The World Health Organization today declared it will launch a review of the global – including its own - response to the H1N1 swine influenza epidemic, as questions swirl around whether the UN agency trumped up the importance of H1N1. The WHO also faces charges this week that it has acted without transparency and inclusiveness in leading a process to find alternative financing for research and development into medicines for diseases occurring predominately in developing countries.
联合援助国际药品采购机制（UNITAID，以下简称「联合援助」）执行理事会在十二月通过一项专利药品库的实施计划，藉以刺激开发中国家对重要药品之研究，并增加取得管道。根据联合援助表示，这个专利药品库将在2010年中开始运作；该组织并已选定十九种产品可望纳入药品库，同时还继续跟药厂协商，期能达成协议，让仿制药厂得以生产比较廉价的版本。
This week's consideration of an implementation plan for a medicines patent pool by the board of oversight body UNITAID stirred a stream of stakeholder letters from around the world.
The Obama administration and industry groups like the Motion Picture Association of America continue to keep their policy focus squarely on protection and enforcement of IP assets, but in testimony to the US Congress last week made no mention of multilateral venues for advancing these interests through new policy instruments.