Original news and analysis on international IP policy
World Intellectual Property Organization delegates will meet in the coming week to try to advance work on the protection of genetic resources against misappropriation. Through its renewed mandate, the WIPO committee is expected to focus on accommodating diverse points of view and try to reach a common understanding on core issues, including what and whom should benefit from protection.
Cambodia has become the first country to join a 2015 agreement at the World Intellectual Property Organization aimed at strengthening protection of geographical indications (GIs). The Asian nation has several GIs it is seeking to protect, such as the Kampot pepper. But it might seem surprising that almost three years later, the group of European countries that fought so hard to conclude the treaty back in 2015 still have not acceded to it.
Political and economic shifts have modified the post-war world order, and global health governance has to adapt to this new environment, speakers said at an academic event in Geneva this week. Among the changes: with the decline of United States funding for global health, new actors such as China and India could take leadership roles, they said.
The Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) this week launched a campaign to ask the University of California to drop its pursuit of a patent on the prostrate cancer drug Xtandi in India in order to make it affordable for patients. Xtandi sells at "exorbitant" rates in the United States, they said, a seeming violation of the licensing guidelines of the publicly funded University of California system which guarantees an "appropriate" return on taxpayer investments.
A coalition of companies holding patents in Europe has welcomed conclusions released this week by the Council of the European Union on tougher enforcement of intellectual property rights. But the group raised concern that the conclusions failed to recognise the steady rise in the EU of patent-assertion entities, or patent trolls.
Countries highly dependent on intellectual property rights do little to educate people not working in the IP field about the importance of such rights, an industry-backed study has found.
There is little evidence that more innovative or therapeutically valuable pharmaceutical products are rewarded, or that patents are the best way to do so, Economics Professor Margaret Kyle of the Centre d’économie industrielle of Mines ParisTech says in an upcoming study for the Review of Industrial Organization.
NEW YORK -- A major event on innovation and access to health technologies took place at the United Nations in New York last week, in which UN member states were briefed on ideas and efforts to promote these issues at the forefront of global health policy.
Nobel Prize winner Sir John Sulston passed away on 6 March at the age of 75, and was widely remembered in the press and scientific circles, celebrating his research, his wisdom, and his leadership of the landmark Human Genome Project. Intellectual Property Watch recalls his visionary warning and advice a decade ago about the intellectual property system, investment, and science that is still valuable today.
Variety reports: The [US] Copyright Royalty Board has ruled to increase songwriter rates for interactive streaming by nearly 50% over the next five years, in a ruling issued early Saturday. Equally important, the CRB simplified and strengthened the manner in which songwriters are paid mechanical royalties, modifying terms in a way that offers a foothold in the free-market.
Access to hepatitis C treatments is increasing, so are therapeutic options, but most of those living with the disease are not diagnosed and thus remain untreated, the World Health Organization found in a new report. Upper-middle income and high-income countries continue to pay high prices, impeding equitable access, and those countries which have been most successful in increasing access have mobilised a strong government response, the report found.
The protection of inventions is a cornerstone to encourage innovation as engine of economic growth. As one of the world‘s leading centres for innovation, the level of scientific and technological performance in Germany is very high, thanks to an excellent research landscape and a good technological and economic basis. But the global innovation competition is intensifying, and new competitors are seeking to enter international markets. However, Germany is falling short of its potential when it comes to leveraging technology to create new products, writes Michael Kahnert.