Original news and analysis on international IP policy
In this week's highly anticipated visit to the United States by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a number of joint statements have been issued, raising hope for greater cooperation between the two countries, and some concern about the same.
To hear some delegates’ late night closing statements at the General Assembly last night, developing country goals at the World Intellectual Property Organization died this week, as key issues met roadblocks in every direction. But all member states claimed to be shaken by the crash of WIPO’s normative agenda this week, putting the model for negotiating at the UN agency into question.
World Intellectual Property Organization members have approved an amendment to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) aimed at lowering fees for a greater number of users.
Every year at this time, various World Intellectual Property Organization committees give a report to the organisation’s General Assembly on their past year’s activities and recommendations for decisions to be taken, including work they will be undertaking during the next year. At this week’s Assembly, reports were noted from committees on patents, trademarks, WIPO standards, and enforcement.
Some of the leading patent-filing nations this week renewed an effort to harmonise procedures for filing patents in their national offices. Image Credits: Eric Bridiers, US Mission
The World Health Organization has published an analysis of the patent situation for new hepatitis treatments, and a call for possible pharmaceutical products for prequalification.
A side event to this week’s World Intellectual Property Organization annual General Assembly highlighted the work of the Geneva-based Medicines Patent Pool in fighting HIV/AIDS, and discussed whether it makes sense for the patent pool model to be extended to other diseases.
The World Intellectual Property Organization administration received a strong reaction from UN unions on Friday night when it fired the president of the UN agency’s staff association on the eve of the annual WIPO General Assembly. Meanwhile, the General Assembly chair has been called on to provide to member states the results of two confidential reports evaluating allegations made against the WIPO director general.
After months of consideration and an application process that attracted 360 applicants, the World Intellectual Property Organization secretariat has made public its proposed names for the top posts at the UN agency for the next six years. Only four out…
Googling may be a ubiquitous fact of life, but the company behind the term still has trademark rights, a US court has found.