Would US Senate Patent Reform Bill Harmonise US Law With The World?
The bill to reform United States patent law recently passed by the Senate purports to bring US law closer to laws of other major patent-filing nations. But how close would it come?
Intellectual Property Watch
Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Category Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets
White House Issues Proposals For IP Legislation
The Obama administration today issued a series of recommended legislative changes to further beef up domestic intellectual property rights protection, including boosting criminal punishment of pharmaceutical counterfeiters and those engaged in "economic espionage," increasing wiretapping, making infringing online streaming a felony, and giving more powers to customs officials.
UN Agencies Encourage Use Of WTO Measures To Lower HIV Medicines Costs
Three United Nations agencies have joined together to explain to their member countries the little-understood but hard-won flexibilities to applying stiff international intellectual property rules. The focus of the new policy brief is on improving access to HIV treatment, and it offers a series of actions for governments and international organisations.
International Seed Treaty Hears Concerns Of Corporate Concentration, DNA Patenting
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is holding the fourth regular session of its Governing Body this week in Bali, Indonesia.
EU Takes Actions On Patent Law; ACTA May See Legal Fight
In a flurry of patent-related developments in Europe this week, plans for a single European patent moved a step closer, efforts to create a European-wide patent court faltered, the United Kingdom sought guidance in a case with implications for medicinal research, and the EU high court may be asked to review the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
Caribbean IP: Establishing An Arbitral Tribunal For The Region
The use of arbitration across the Caribbean has been largely within the context of trade union disputes and is still something of a novelty in resolving commercial and private disputes in the region, Abiola Inniss writes.
Vaccines Alliance Gets New CEO
A key Geneva-based public-private initiative to increase global vaccination has named a new CEO.
Medicines Patent Pool Aims To Increase Access To HIV Drugs In Developing Countries
The newly created Medicines Patent Pool promises to increase access to HIV/AIDS medications in developing markets. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the pool operates a scheme in which pharmaceutical patent holders voluntarily licence their drugs to generic manufacturers who then produce more affordable versions for patients in poorer countries
UN Rapporteur On Food Offers Long-Term Answer To Food Crisis: Agroecology
The annual report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, to the sixteenth session of the UN Human Rights Council yesterday is unequivocal. There must be a global agricultural shift toward more productive, environmentally friendly, sustainable modes of production, using natural resources to remediate world hunger, away from industrialised agriculture. In short, the world needs a shift to agroecology.
Canada Considers Amendment To Compulsory Licensing Regime For Medicines Access
The Canadian Parliament is on the verge of amending the nation’s patent regime to make it easier for generic drug companies to provide low-cost HIV medications for developing countries.
Panel: Help Needed With IP Implications Of Nagoya Protocol On Genetic Resources
The new international agreement on access and benefit-sharing of genetic resources has many IP implications, according to panellists at an event last week. And at least one United Nations agency is launching an effort to help countries with those IP implications.
In Brazil And The IP World, It’s Tropicalization Time!
Benny Spiewak writes: There used to be a time when Brazil meant almost exclusively Carnival, Samba and Soccer. Well, those days are over and there is an undeniable message that will echo through the knowledge-based, creative, innovative world: Wake-Up, World, It’s Tropicalization Time!