Original news and analysis on international IP policy
An important international platform that has seen stark differences in the past, the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) began a weeklong meeting today on improving the patent system with parties promoting their own interests and asking straightforward questions of others.
Members of the World Health Organization Executive Board this week moved forward on the long path to new ways to spur research and development for diseases that mainly afflict poor populations. A process has been set for considering – and potentially choosing among - eight projects before the annual World Health Assembly in May.
The sometimes tense issue of intellectual property rights flexibilities built into international trade rules on IP briefly threatened to trip up a proposal on access to medicines today at the World Health Organization. But members managed to steer the debate to consensus on a text that will now head to the full membership for approval in May.
The World Health Organization has been soul-searching for several years since running into deep debt and seeing private organisations gather influence in global public health policy. Next week, the WHO Board will consider a proposal on how to allow the intergovernmental body work with such organisations and industry without giving up its own independence and oversight role.
DG Shah writes: Acquisition of brownfield, or existing, pharmaceutical companies may be seen in different perspectives as greenfield, or new, projects are permitted 100% equity via the automatic route. India has sought FDI mainly to bridge the shortfall in investment or to facilitate the flow of know-how and technology. We must first assess the need of the pharma sector and then evaluate whether mere change of ownership would meet its needs.
Richard Hill, an independent consultant in Geneva who was formerly a senior staff member at the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU), recently published, “The New International Telecommunication Regulations and the Internet: A Commentary and Legislative History.” In a set of questions with Intellectual Property Watch’s William New, Hill talked about his book, which explains the significance of the 1988 and 2012 International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) and covers the preparatory process leading up to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). The book also discusses the events leading to the non-signature by the treaty of a significant number of states, outlines possible consequences of that split between states, and offers possible ways forward.
Participants at a recent conference in South Africa offered insights and some optimism about prospects for local communities to exploit their traditional knowledge to help their economies while at the same time protecting that knowledge.
A 12-year-old World Health Organization programme for prequalifying medical products has helped international organisations and others to safely purchase billions of US dollars' worth of quality medicines per year, but now is at risk due to funding shortages, a new study released today found.
World Health Organization member governments have been working for several years to agree on ways to prevent the spread of dangerous and misleading substandard and fake medical products. Now, they seem to be moving in the direction of concrete action.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today launched a major awareness-raising campaign against trafficking in counterfeit goods, which it said is a major revenue source for organised crime worldwide: $250 billion per year.