Category Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets

The Future Of The Ideas Business – The Rise Of Data-Driven Invention

New ideas are getting harder to find, and with less ideas there is a decline in organisational productivity and economic growth. This isn’t new, nor is the fact that to counterbalance the decline in idea generation, research and development have received and continue to require heavy investment. But with daily news of innovation centres opening up across the globe, the question remains whether initiatives like open innovation, crowdsourcing, or simply putting more scientific brains together will do this investment justice.

Last month, leading representatives of the IP, R&D and technology arenas met in Switzerland to discuss a technology-based alternative to human only idea generation. Hosted by data-driven invention company Iprova, the 2nd Data-Driven Invention Forum saw attendees from companies, such as Panasonic, Philips and DuPont as well as many other global organisations explore the future of innovation and the role data-driven invention plays in it. Here are some of the conclusions of the conference.

Licensing Experts Share Experiences At WIPO

Voluntary licences are cited by some as the best way to facilitate access to medicines. Terms of the licences are important, many factors have to be taken into consideration, and the earlier the better, as explained by licencing experts at the World Intellectual Property Organization this week.

OECD Report Presents Policies To Balance Innovation With Access To Medicines

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released a new report that presents policy options for countries to strike a better balance between promoting financial incentives for pharmaceutical innovation and ensuring affordable access to medicines. Finding this balance, the report explains, will be essential for ensuring the sustainability of health systems.

Transparency Of Patent Status Key For Health Actors: Databases Presented At WIPO

Information on the status of patents can be key for medicines procurement agencies seeking to know if they can source cheaper generic products. Several databases providing free information on patent status were presented yesterday at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The World Health Organization, also invited, hailed the efforts, but warned against listing follow-on patents, which could confuse procurement professionals. And a prominent molecular biologist, chief executive of a patents-and-scholarly database, called for breaking silos to advance innovation.

US IP Stakeholders Seek To Strengthen Public Support For IP, Ensure Future US Competitiveness

NEW YORK -- United States intellectual property stakeholders from academic, business and legal backgrounds gathered recently to discuss how to increase public support to strengthen the intellectual property rights system in the US, in light of China’s steady rise in numbers of patent and trademark filings. US IP stakeholders argued that developing public awareness and understanding of IP is key to building this support, with some holding diverging views on how to go about this.

Study Finds Arthritis Drug Enbrel Overpatented, Overpriced in US

Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK) released a new study yesterday showing that the rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel has been overpatented by drugmaker Amgen, which has filed a total of 57 patents on the drug in the United States. Together, these patents were said to delay market competition by 39 years, rather than the standard 20 years for one patent. The study found that this market exclusivity for Enbrel resulted in US$ 8 billion dollars in sales in 2017 alone.

WHO Director Tedros Gives Thoughts On Access To Medicines, Gene Editing, Ebola

World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Dr Tedros) met with United Nations journalists today, in what he said would become a regular end-of-the-year meeting with the press. He gave an update on the ongoing Ebola outbreak and his views on the recent human gene editing by a Chinese researcher, and on the use of gene drive organisms to fight malaria. He also provided his views on access to affordable and safe medicines.

China Pulling The Cart To Propel Global IP Filings To New Heights, Trademarks Skyrocketing – WIPO

Global intellectual property filing numbers kept rising unabated in 2017, as China continued to pull the numbers upwards. The World Intellectual Property Indicators 2018, published today, also showed what the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization qualified as extraordinary growth in trademark applications. And he remarked on the increasing importance of intellectual property in the contemporary economy.

Conferences On Medicines Patent Information, Patent Office Cooperation, At WIPO This Week

The World Intellectual Property Organization patent law committee meeting this week will convene two half-day conferences, one on cooperation between patent offices, and the other on publicly accessible databases on patent information on medicines and vaccines. Other topics for discussion will be patents and health, confidentiality of communications between patent applicants and their advisors, quality of patents, and the research exception.