Original news and analysis on international IP policy
An amendment to a World Trade Organization agreement for public health purposes was harshly criticised by non-governmental organisations and greeted with caution by the pharmaceutical industry. NGOs said the access-to-medicines deal that was reached by WTO members on 6 December…
By Martin Vaughan for Intellectual Property Watch Andean countries in late November narrowed differences with the United States over intellectual property protections in negotiations over a US-Andean bilateral free trade agreement, but divisions over market access for agriculture have likely…
Bern, Switzerland – A day-long conference of experts on health issues demonstrated the range of views in the debate on how developing countries should best address their public health needs through international policies. Dominique Sprumont of the University of Neuchâtel…
The World Trade Organization next week will reconvene a suspended meeting on unresolved intellectual property issues that sources say have moved little in the final weeks before the 13-18 December ministerial in Hong Kong. The 29 November meeting will consider…
Citing a need to change the debate on intellectual property issues, another US trade association has added Geneva to its list of lobbying stops. The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) has expanded its presence in Europe in recent years mainly…
While Swiss-based Roche, the rights holder to the most-favoured medicine for avian influenza, is pursuing sub-licenses, India is moving ahead with exploring the option of compulsory licensing. If this goes through, India would be able to export Tamiflu to developing…
Roche, the Swiss-based company with rights to a medicine believed to be the most effective in the event of an avian influenza pandemic, has expressed openness to discussing arrangements with companies or governments to produce more of its flu treatment…
By Martin Vaughan for Intellectual Property Watch Washington, DC—With negotiators set to resume work this week, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador are resisting demands by the United States for patent protections that go beyond those enshrined in international trade law in…
By Sarah Lai Stirland for Intellectual Property Watch A wall of opposition from the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and independent inventor communities this year gutted some of the most controversial provisions from an ambitious patent reform bill introduced in July in the…
Failure to get agreement on a proposal to harmonise national patent laws by World Intellectual Property Organisation members will not impact the functioning and credibility of the organisation, a top WIPO official said today. Failure to agree “is not necessarily…
The World Intellectual Property Organisation is said to be different from many United Nations bodies in that it has long been seen as more of a technical body than the domain of career diplomats who are expert at political wrangling.…
Governments’ failure to reach agreement on a way forward on patent harmonisation talks at the World Intellectual Property Organisation today has cast a pall on the future of the issue within the UN body, sources said. The meeting of the…