Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The president of the World Intellectual Property Organization staff association earlier this month raised profound concerns about ongoing practices involving staff at the UN institution. The WIPO director general then took the floor to address many of the concerns, offering explanations on various points, according to participants. In the end, both sides may be looking for an improvement this year.
A lively keynote address urging international organisations to adopt a fact-based view of the world and new ways of segmenting countries in an increasingly convergent world, set the scene for the annual trilateral symposium on public health, intellectual property and trade taking place at the World Trade Organization today.
Trade, health, and intellectual property came together today as the heads of three specialised international organisations held an annual symposium to stimulate discussions on how the three can best help public health, and notably access to medicines in developing countries.
NAIROBI, Kenya – A Kenyan government plan to lift the ban on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is stirring a heated debate here, with experts warning on safety and the East African nation’s preparedness for the technology.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - While Médecins Sans Frontières have blamed stock-outs of ‘Aluvia’ on the refusal to licence a patent for a generic of the HIV medicine in South Africa by AbbVie pharmaceutical company leading to persistent supply problems, the company said it has taken measures to address the problem.
A revealing independent review to be published this week on WIPO Re:Search, the World Intellectual Property Organization initiative for development of medical products for neglected tropical diseases, malaria and tuberculosis, gives a set of recommendations to ensure the sustainability and success of the initiative.
The treaty on plant genetic resources held its governing body meeting earlier this month with new initiatives to bring financial sustainability to the treaty, in particular to study the possibility of a subscription system to access the treaty’s plant genetic materials. Also, the Governing Body approved the first work programme of a global information system, which includes an initiative to enhance the use of gene bank materials, to the dismay of farmers’ organisations.
Governments and international organizations are failing to ensure adequate protections to whistleblowers and sources of information, according to a new report* by the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye.
International trade agreements are sometimes demonised as the Grand Plan imposed by major powers in cahoots with multinational corporations. Intellectual property rights is a particular target, as is the case currently with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and previously with the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). "The Making of the TRIPS Agreement", the insightful, unofficial collected memoirs of 17 of the agreement’s key authors, plus one editor, challenges that view in two ways, writes Peter Ungphakorn.
World Health Organization members and stakeholders were invited to provide comments this month on the organisation’s framework to spur preparedness for future influenza pandemics and ensure treatments will reach developing countries. The framework is expected to undergo a review in 2016. The advisory group to the initiative also went through issues such as contributions by manufacturers, and how to deal with genetic sequence data.
Alongside the recent World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly, the WIPO Global Challenges Division presented WIPO Re:Search, a public-private consortium to facilitate research on neglected tropical diseases, tuberculosis and malaria.
The Federal Circuit is no stranger to controversy. And recently, the court stepped in it again. In an important ruling, the court made it far easier for some patent owners to obtain injunctions against infringers. The ruling could promote patent litigation in many industries, boost litigation costs, and effectively undermine a key Supreme Court decision limiting the availability of patent injunctions.