Original news and analysis on international IP policy
A new industry report shows that the average prices for orphan drugs are increasing and are projected to comprise more than 20 percent of the patented pharmaceutical sales market by 2022.
The French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health announced today that the ministry has negotiated with pharmaceutical company Gilead to bring down the prices of hepatitis C medicines.
Legislation authorising the president to appoint the Register of Copyright in the United States Copyright Office is working its way through Congress. The “Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act” garnered strong bipartisan support in the House of Representatives Judiciary…
Concerns continue to grow among civil society about provisions in a major trade agreement in the Asian region. Of specific worry is the intellectual property chapter containing in particular a data exclusivity clause, and the linkage between the investment chapter and the IP chapter.
A partnership of government agencies and organisations in the United States and United Kingdom have announced an investment of up to US$48 million into the development of new antibiotics and products to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria, with the aim of having two new antibiotics in human trials in the next five years.
The World Trade Organization has issued a call to hire a legal analyst specialised on intellectual property law, including the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
A range of civil society organisations today issued a letter to European Union leadership urging support for a World Health Organization resolution that mandates a feasibility study on a fund for cancer research and development that delinks R&D costs from the price of health technologies.
The director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Michelle Lee, today resurfaced after weeks of silence, speaking after the trilateral meeting of the US, European and Japan patent offices. Among her remarks was praise for Latin American countries for joining the Patent Prosecution Highway, which she said has already resulted in much faster patents in the region.
A tentative way to continue conversing about geographical indications (GIs) at the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on trademarks and GIs was tabled by the committee chair today. The suggested approach includes a questionnaire to member states on the different ways GIs are addressed by national and regional systems. Meanwhile, a potential design law treaty was pushed off to the next WIPO General Assembly, held in autumn.
NEW DELHI, India -- Biopiracy is ongoing in many developing countries, and as long as there are no international obligations for patent applicants to disclose the origin of the genetic resources or traditional knowledge they use, the issue will endure, according to speakers at a recent conference in New Delhi. The broken conversation at the World Trade Organization needs to be rekindled so that an international regime of protection is set up, they said.
Nearly 20 percent of mobile phones and 25 percent of video game consoles sold internationally are counterfeit, and the numbers are rising, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
How to deal with genetic information rather than physical samples of pandemic influenza virus continues to be discussed at the World Health Organization. For the moment, only physical samples are part of a framework of access and benefit sharing set up and run by the WHO. This week, the framework advisory group is meeting and according to sources, suggested steps to establish guidance on how to address virus genetic information will be shared by the WHO during the meeting.