Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Drugs for Neglected Disease initiative (DNDi), a nonprofit research and development organisation, today announced a collaboration with pharmaceutical companies and other nonprofits to manufacture and supply a "new, more affordable" hepatitis C treatment in Latin America. Hepatitis C medicines have been renowned for their high prices worldwide.
In 2016, the European Patent Office (EPO) introduced a streamlined opposition procedure that should simplify opposition proceedings and deliver decisions faster, while giving parties more time to react to summons and prepare for oral proceedings. This new initiative, called early certainty, aimed to cut down the overall duration of granting new patents and to tackle the backlog in patent granting within the EPO, writes Michael Kahnert.
United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer warned his Mexican and Canadian counterparts today (5 March) that if they don't quickly pick up the pace of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations, they will face "headwinds" from elections in all three countries. And if they can't progress, the US is prepared to proceed bilaterally.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will make public the new design for patents this week at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. The new design will first be used on patent number 10 million, expected to issue this year. There have fewer than 12 basic design changes to the US patent since President George Washington granted the first patent in 1790, and only two in the last 100 years, USPTO said.
Intellectual property rights, particularly patents, are considered by some as being a barrier in access to medicines despite being a stimulus for innovation. At a recent symposium co-organised by the World Health Organization, World Trade Organization and World Intellectual Property Organization, speakers also talked about the role of science, governments, and universities in health innovation and access, and how to address challenges such as secondary patents.
The World Health Organisation's Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) has published the first report on research fairness under a new initiative. The report includes an analysis of how TDR manages intellectual property rights in a positive way.
The price of hepatitis C medicine marked a turning point in the discussion on access to medicines, with developed countries suddenly confronted to prices they could not afford. This week, a symposium jointly organised by the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, and the World Intellectual Property Organization explored the question of the pricing of medicines. A number of suggestions were made to alleviate the issue, such as ensuring wide use of generic medicines, encouraging competition, and alerting countries about the cost of medicine production so they negotiate better with pharmaceutical companies.
Despite the widespread view that the flexibilities included in international trade rules are not often used, a new study found that countries make extensive use of those flexibilities.
Native American tribes’ sovereign immunity can’t be used to avoid inter partes review (IPR) of patent validity, the US Patent and Trademark Office Patent and Appeal Board (PTAB) has ruled in a first-of-its-kind case.
A relatively new topic of discussion at the World Trade Organization committee on intellectual property is the relationship between intellectual property and the public interest. This week, WTO delegates discussed the application and benefits of a regulatory exception to IP rights allowing earlier entry of generics to the market, known as the Bolar exception. The committee also heard about a request from least-developed countries (LDCs) to improve technology transfer measures that developed countries have the obligation to provide under WTO rules.