Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Brazil on 17 November proposed that the World Intellectual Property Organisation tie its draft treaty on broadcasters’ rights to a recently agreed treaty on cultural diversity that was seen as strengthening nations’ ability to control information flows across their borders.…
The last time the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) copyright committee met it ended in acrimony, with still-bitter memories for some member governments who argued their objections to the outcome were wrongly ignored. But after a year and numerous…
Citing a need to change the debate on intellectual property issues, another US trade association has added Geneva to its list of lobbying stops. The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) has expanded its presence in Europe in recent years mainly…
While Swiss-based Roche, the rights holder to the most-favoured medicine for avian influenza, is pursuing sub-licenses, India is moving ahead with exploring the option of compulsory licensing. If this goes through, India would be able to export Tamiflu to developing…
Roche, the Swiss-based company with rights to a medicine believed to be the most effective in the event of an avian influenza pandemic, has expressed openness to discussing arrangements with companies or governments to produce more of its flu treatment…
A high-level group of legal scholars, artists, scientists and experts has launched an initiative urging governments to change the global intellectual property scheme which they argue has shifted too much toward private interests at the expense of the public. John…
Paris—The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) today approved a treaty for the protection of cultural diversity despite an all-out drive by the United States to get governments to change their minds. “We really pulled out all the stops”…
PARIS — Attempts by the United States and Japan to reopen negotiations on a UN draft treaty on cultural diversity today are meeting with firm resistance from developed and developing countries alike. While most nations’ ministers present at the UN…
By Martin Vaughan for Intellectual Property Watch Washington, DC—With negotiators set to resume work this week, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador are resisting demands by the United States for patent protections that go beyond those enshrined in international trade law in…
Intellectual property issues resurfaced on the agenda of the preparatory talks for the December World Trade Organization ministerial as they were mentioned at the meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) in Geneva on 13 October. No specific proposals were…
Member governments of the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation at their 26 September to 5 October General Assemblies agreed on a way to proceed with negotiations for a treaty on broadcasters’ rights. They will prepare a “basic proposal,” or draft…
By Sarah Lai Stirland for Intellectual Property Watch A wall of opposition from the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and independent inventor communities this year gutted some of the most controversial provisions from an ambitious patent reform bill introduced in July in the…