Category Features

Nations Work To Make IP Systems Combat Climate Change

With less than a year to complete a new global plan to combat climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is under pressure to be able to move to a decision at the end of the year. But it is in the longer-term action plans that intellectual property issues are featuring most prominently, as parties to the UNFCCC aim to satisfy the need for growth in poor countries, and to mitigate effects of growth on the environment - a move that will require effective technology transfer.

UN Special Rapporteur: IP In Health Helping Those With Most Means, Less Need

Nearly two billion people lack access to the medical care they need, and in the developing world those who do manage to have access are overwhelmingly paying out-of-pocket, often triggering a fall into poverty. The monopoly-making power of patents to drive the cost of medicines beyond affordability is a significant contributor to this disturbing trend, says a report of the United Nations rapporteur on the right to health presented at last week’s Human Rights Council.

Turning Points Ahead For WTO Geographical Indications, Biodiversity?

The coming months could spell changes in the long-running World Trade Organization talks on creating a register for wines and spirits geographical indications and amending WTO rules to better protect biodiversity rights. Developed countries that have been blocking progress on the issues for years may be pushed at a political level, according to some sources.

UN-Led Commission Sees Needs In Internet Governance, Science, Technology

A commission under the United Nations charged with monitoring progress in improving science and technology in places where access is difficult and capacity to use that access scarce, concluded its recent annual meeting with draft resolutions on internet and society and on development and science. One notes that there is still much work to be done to bridge the ‘digital divide’ that creates disparities in access to information technology and knowledge in the world; the other calls on governments and UN institutions to find innovative ways to support innovative capacity.

US Patent Reform Prospects Unclear; First-To-File Questioned

Patent reform may be chugging along in the United States Congress, but so far, with the Senate soon to be consumed with what could be a contentious Supreme Court nomination fight, and with President Obama still lacking a new director of the US Patent and Trademark Office, some are questioning whether reform will actually happen this year. In addition, a key "first-to-file" provision in the US bill to harmonise with other countries may be more appearance than substance.