Original news and analysis on international IP policy
After two-and-a-half days of non-stop information sharing on ways to build respect for intellectual property and enforce IP rights, members of the World Intellectual Property Organization could not agree on the future agenda of the committee on enforcement.
An executive committee of nearly half the World Intellectual Property Organization membership will tomorrow, 6 March, select the leader of the key UN organisation for the next six years. And it is still hard to predict whether the incumbent will return.
New business models for reducing markets for counterfeit and pirated goods were presented by speakers at the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement this week, including voluntary mechanisms and graduated responses. But prices on brand name products was a little-explored issue during the presentations, only underlined as a possible factor of piracy by one developing country delegation.
The South Centre, the Geneva-based intergovernmental organisation of developing countries, yesterday issued a statement calling on World Trade Organization members to oppose United States pressure against developing countries, and India in particular, over their intellectual property laws.
Raising awareness on the value of intellectual property and preventive actions to fight counterfeiting particularly among younger users was among the strategies presented by speakers at the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on enforcement of IP rights this week.
This week, some World Intellectual Property Organization member states are presenting their national and regional practices and strategies to prevent purchases of counterfeit or pirated goods with the aim to promote the underreported hard work of states in this area.
World Intellectual Property Organization members this week are meeting to discuss efforts to better protect intellectual property rights worldwide, including some new proposals for discussion and an exhibition on national programmes.
An article published in the March 2014 issue of the World Health Organisation Bulletin discusses the evolving issue of access to medicines in Africa.
World Trade Organization members at the WTO intellectual property committee this week held fast to positions on longstanding issues, but engaged in discussions on issues such as innovation in relation to universities, and so-called “non-violation complaints” against countries that may cause harm to another country but don’t violate a WTO rule. Also discussed was the ongoing dispute over plain packaging requirements for tobacco products.
Intellectual property has a strong effect on the practice of science, leading to a shift in research attention for the benefit of the rich, while impeding access to essential goods for the disadvantaged, according to a recent book.
The United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today released a report detailing the US Food and Drug Administration's "highly-invasive" surveillance programme that monitored employees who contacted Congress and the media, according to a press release from the committee leaders. Surveillance was unauthorised and whistleblowers were not given sufficient protection, the report found.
UNITAID is expected to soon publish a report on the implications of the leaked provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) on public health and access to medicines.