Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Kaitlin Mara United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab on Tuesday told reporters at the World Trade Organization that the United States does not plan to negotiate this week on the extension of high-level protections on product names associated with…
By William New and Kaitlin Mara Intellectual property issues have been a topic of debate at the World Trade Organization ministerial negotiations since Friday and while there have been no changes in positions there has been some talk of looking…
Par Wagdy Sawahel pour Intellectual Property Watch Dans une invitation à renforcer la collaboration régionale dans les domaines de l’industrie de la création, du droit d’auteur et des droits connexes, dix-sept ministres africains de l’art et de la culture, ont…
[Note: IP issues may be the subject of meetings between ministers and WTO DG Lamy over this weekend, according to sources.] By Kaitlin Mara and William New A new draft of proposed modalities for negotiating three intellectual property issues at…
By Tatum Anderson for Intellectual Property Watch
An important court case in the ongoing saga between two of the mobile industry's most influential technology firms begins next week.
The case is a crucial stage in the ongoing disagreement between the two equipment manufacturers - Finnish Nokia and US Qualcomm - that has become increasingly acrimonious over recent years and resulted in numerous patent infringement cases all over the world.
By Kaitlin Mara Records of human history and creativity – glimpses into the past caught on papyrus or in carefully preserved books – might themselves become things of the past without better ways to create permanent record in an increasingly…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch In a flurry of intellectual property-related activity, the European Commission this week ordered copyright collecting societies to loosen their stranglehold on cross-border music licensing, proposed extending the term of copyright protection to 95…
By Catherine Saez Standards and intellectual property rights appear to be worlds apart and to respond to opposite purposes, according to a recent panel of legal and policy experts. While standards are established to ensure compatibility in technology to the…
By Wagdy Sawahel for Intellectual Property Watch CAIRO – African countries recently approved a plan to set up a parliamentary knowledge network to enhance legislative and institutional capacity for creating science and technology-based legislation including intellectual property rights. But the…
By Liza Porteus Viana for Intellectual Property Watch
When Biotechnology Industry Organization CEO Jim Greenwood meets with members of the United States Congress to talk to them about follow-on biologics, he brings a graphic model of an aspirin and a DVD showing the complex molecules of a biologic drug. He uses these visuals to help explain the differences between traditional chemical drugs and newer, cutting-edge biological ones being used in many breakthrough therapies for cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, and other diseases.
The differences between traditional chemical drugs and biological ones is the crux of the debate going on in the United States as Congress and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) try to create a regulatory pathway that gives consumers greater access to cheaper, generic biological drugs, but still spurs innovation and protects innovator patent claims.
"When the legislation was introduced at the beginning of this Congress, most pundits expected that we'd oppose it," said Greenwood, a former House representative from Pennsylvania, told Intellectual Property Watch. "But that was a mistake the pharmaceutical industry made in the '80s - trying to resist the notion you could safely make generics …our view at BIO is that we need to follow the science, and science says you can make follow-on biologics that can be safe and can save the consumer money and therefore we support it."
By Kaitlin Mara A confidential draft text circulated recently among some World Trade Organization members reveals an attempt to consolidate separate proposals aimed at the protection of product names with location-related associations and characteristics (called geographical indications) and at the…
By Wagdy Sawahel for Intellectual Property Watch Seventeen African ministers of arts and culture have officially launched the newly formed Southern and Eastern Africa Copyright Network (Seaconet) in a bid to strengthen regional collaboration and cooperation in the field of…