Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Staff Association of the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) this week issued a strongly worded statement in solidarity with staff at the European Patent Office. They called the EPO essential to Europe and said the EPO president's repressive "19th century"-style anti-worker tactics are endangering the institution and the European economy.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) today announced the postponement of the assumption of duties of the person appointed to become the new director of the FAO liaison office in Geneva. The postponement comes after the government of Peru raised concerns that FAO's appointment of former Peruvian first lady Nadine Heredia Alarcón interferes with a government investigation of corruption and money-laundering against her.
A new text suggested by facilitators in the ongoing discussions on the protection of traditional knowledge at the World Intellectual Property Organization attempts to tighten options to facilitate further discussions. They focused on the policy objectives of the potential treaty, what it should cover, and who should benefit from it - whether only indigenous peoples or states as well. Separately, Switzerland made a suggestion for a way forward with "positive" protection of TK.
A widely representative World Health Organization technical working group has recommended new terminology for substandard or falsified medicines, after years of sharp disagreement among WHO members that led to the tongue-twister: “substandard/spurious/falsely-labelled/falsified/counterfeit” medical products. The working group recommends a simpler formula: kick out intellectual property rights by dropping the term “counterfeit” and just call the products “substandard and falsified.”
A seminar was organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization to provide a discussion platform on the eve of this week’s meeting on the protection of traditional knowledge, and as a way for countries to share systems of protection. Panellists presented views on possible graduated protection for different sorts of traditional knowledge.
For Roberto Azevêdo, director general of the World Trade Organization, an amendment to the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement that affects access to pharmaceuticals for developing countries remains a priority of the WTO.
The World Intellectual Property Indicators 2016 report sounds like a refrain, but with some superlatives when it comes to China, which became the first intellectual property office ever to register over a million patent applications in a single year, in 2015. Against a background of bleak global growth, IP activities are flourishing. As in recent years, Asia dominates the IP global activities, while lower middle-income countries seem to have been unable to reduce the technological gap, and remain almost left out of the IP activity.
The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) today announced that its director general is stepping down at the end of January.
The World Health Organization has published two advanced documents to be presented at the organisation’s Executive Board meeting in January. One relates to the review of the WHO mechanism for pandemic influenza preparedness, and the other to the public health implications of the implementation of an international treaty on genetic resources.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today issued a message praising the "milestone" report of a High-Level Panel on access to medicines he set up a year ago to address the continuing problem of medicines prices being too high for many in the world to afford, and the lack of access to quality medicines for many. In his message, he called on governments to review the report and its recommendations, and to chart a way forward to address the problem of lack of access to medicines and health technologies.
Candidates from around the world vying to be the next director general of the World Health Organization in recent weeks have presented their views to member states on a range of public health issues. Two of the six candidates answered a question put to them by Intellectual Property Watch relating to medicines prices, innovation and intellectual property. Here are their answers.
Q. Todd Dickinson is a shareholder at Polsinelli law firm, and was director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) under President Clinton, a former lead IP counsel for two Fortune 50 corporations, and most recently executive director of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA). In an interview with Intellectual Property Watch on 18 November in the margins of the IP Dealmakers conference in New York, Dickinson discussed US prospects for national and international IP policy after the presidential election, changes in Geneva, reform of US IP law, and repairing relationships.