Original news and analysis on international IP policy
A diverse team of global experts on public health research and development will meet this week behind closed doors to analyse proposals for ways to fund R&D on diseases afflicting poor populations – and for who should coordinate such global efforts.
The World Intellectual Property Organization recently stepped into the agriculture field with its first seminar on the use of intellectual property to increase productivity. In the seminar, proponents of IP rights defended the value of protection and the necessity of relying on technology to answer the needs of an inflated world population.
A Canadian bill to improve global access to medicines might get another shot in the new Parliament, writes Daniele Dionisio.
The newly elected head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization today expressed tolerance for genetically modified crops but not for monopolies on seeds.
For the past ten years, the United States Supreme Court has steadily chipped away at patent rights. But this term, the court abruptly reversed direction. In two weeks, the high court issued rulings in three patent cases, and in every one upheld the legal rights of inventors. It is unclear, however, how big a win this really was for patent rights.
The US House of Representatives this evening passed HR 1249 – the closest action patent reform has come to being enacted into law in the past 10 years. But there were some changes made to the bill.
Twelve more countries and the European Union have signed the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing of genetic resources.
The Mexican Senate this week approved a resolution rejecting the secretly negotiated Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, citing absence of inclusion in the negotiations, potential negative impact on internet users' access to knowledge, freedom of expression and other concerns.
Intellectual Property Watch is providing play-by-play action from today’s floor debate of HR 1249, the bill to reform US patent law which is facing a fight. For IP-Watch Subscribers.
US lawmakers this evening agreed to a manager’s amendment to the pending patent reform bill. The legislation could come to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote as soon as tomorrow (22 June). The Senate version, S. 23, was passed in March.
At the last session of the World Trade Organization Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council, the Dominican Republic challenged an Australian draft law requiring plain packaging for tobacco products as being incompatible with its WTO obligations, eclipsing other agenda items. The TRIPS Council also addressed other regular agenda items such as related to biodiversity and public health, according to sources.
NEW YORK - The declaration from the United Nations High-Level Meeting on AIDS, which concluded today, set targets for responding to the disease and contained clear references to flexibilities to intellectual property law intended to assure needed medicines can be obtained affordably, according to Brazil's health minister.