Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Members of the World Intellectual Property Organization this week are slogging through a series of documents related to intellectual property and development. But one document, an external report on WIPO’s provision of technical cooperation assistance, has given way to a substantive discussion about how to fully address the report’s findings of the need for improvement at the UN agency.
An advisory group on the new World Health Organization framework agreement on pandemic influenza preparedness is preparing to meet for the first time from 21-23 November.
The European Court of Auditors yesterday issued a performance audit on European Commission management of the European geographical indications (GI) scheme, which covers products with an estimated value of €15 billion annually. The auditors found room for improvement in clarifying the rules and a need for greater awareness of GIs.
Least-developed countries at the World Trade Organization have proposed an extension of the deadline they are facing to comply with a WTO agreement on intellectual property rights. But they left open how much more time they would like after the 2013 deadline.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has released its first report in what is expected to be a series of publications seeking to explain, clarify and contribute to policy relating to intellectual property. Its debut report, WIPO presented figures that show a growing global demand for patents, a soaring increase in licensing and royalty fees revenues, and an increase in low and middle-income economies’ share of global spending on research and development.
The eighth session of the World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) opened this week with the close of its seventh session. Committee coordinators were still gathered in negotiations as the eighth session was due to begin on 14 November, hammering out a compromise on proposed meetings on South-South cooperation among developing countries.
Evaluation and auditing of the World Intellectual Property Organization gained increased interest a few years ago when rich member countries responsible for most of its revenues became alarmed about questions of financial and human resources management. But now the UN agency’s sometimes bumpy evaluation process is maturing, including a development aspect, and has a new external report on its global technical assistance programmes.
The World Trade Organization today announced that Russia and the WTO working party for its accession have come to agreement. The Russian Federation began negotiating to join the World Trade Organization before the WTO’s landmark agreement on intellectual property rights entered into force. Now, Russia will become party to the agreement upon joining the WTO.
So, the Department of Trade and Industry (“DTI”) has finally gone ahead and done it. It has caused the South African Government to pass the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill (the so-called “Traditional Knowledge Bill”) despite vociferous objections from all quarters. It has rushed headlong into terrain where no angel would venture through acute trepidation. It has entered Wonderland and assumed the role of the Mad Hatter, writes Professor Owen Dean.
The director of the legendary Library of Alexandria, lauded in Europe in recent weeks, has come under attack from the majority of his library staff and others demanding his departure over questions of unprofessional employee practices, alleged retaliation against workers for speaking freely, and for his affiliation with the outcast Mubarak regime.