Original news and analysis on international IP policy
A new survey supports the argument of public health advocates that pharmaceuticals resulting from government-funded research in the United States should be no more expensive than in other similar countries, and that patent rights should be used to make it so.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has scheduled a workshop in December to teach indigenous peoples the value of the intellectual property system in protecting their knowledge and resources.
In a common move for Washington officials who work to protect industry interests while in office, the first-ever United States intellectual property enforcement coordinator has been named to lead a large US software industry group that lobbied her office up until she left two weeks ago.
Incoming World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevêdo has announced the appointment of his four deputies, coming from China, Germany, Nigeria and the United States. He also named his chief of staff, from Australia.
A new report released in the United States assesses assumptions and seeks to spark new thinking on the economic impact of cybercrime and cyberespionage, including the valuation and losses of intellectual property.
World Health Organization members are meeting this week to advance the new international mechanism against substandard and counterfeit medicines.
World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy today said the road to the next WTO ministerial, in Bali, Indonesia in December, has become clearer. He gave a detailed update on issues under negotiation, and included a positive mention of the recent agreement to extend the period for least-developed countries to adopt WTO rules on trade and intellectual property.
Negotiators at the World Intellectual Property Organization this week are struggling to make headway on a draft text of an international instrument for the protection of traditional cultural expressions, or folklore. And accusations began to fly that certain developed countries are not engaging in good faith to move negotiations along.
The process for the 2014 election of the director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization is now available. And according to sources, the incumbent may have some competition for the post.
Members of the World Intellectual Property Organization this week are attempting to advance 13-year-old negotiations on the protection of traditional cultural expressions (folklore) to a point where they can enter final high-level treaty negotiations. But some developed countries are putting up resistance to any instrument that would be legally binding, saying that it is “premature,” which could change the outcome of the negotiations.
World Intellectual Property Organization members are nearing conclusion of negotiations for an international instrument or instruments on issues critical to indigenous peoples, such as protection of traditional indigenous knowledge, practices and genetic resources. But the WIPO membership as a whole has been miserly when it comes to funding indigenous peoples’ participation in the process, and now many are in danger of being left out of the process.
The World Intellectual Property Organization’s proposed programme and budget for the next biennium faced some tough questioning from the UN agency’s member states last week. Meanwhile, WIPO is anticipating a series of treaty negotiations in the next two years.