Original news and analysis on international IP policy
NEW HAVEN – Intellectual property is not the only driver of human innovation. A two-day conference held here recently brought together a range of leading academics and others to share ideas on innovation occurring outside of, or in spite of, intellectual property rights.
From AP: High-profile whistleblowers have joined forces for the first time in demanding that the United Nations change a global system they say deters its thousands of staffers from exposing crime, corruption and other wrongdoing.
In a letter sent to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday, nine current and former U.N. workers say current policies offer "little to no measure of real or meaningful protection" from retaliation that can include firing, harassment and intimidation.
NEW YORK – A daylong event on fashion law devoted significant time to ways intellectual property rights are increasingly providing protection in the fashion world – including with the advent of 3D printing.
The concept of public domain was born out of the intellectual property system, according to some. However, what constitutes the public domain depends on national interpretations. A recent seminar organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization was an occasion for speakers from diverse horizons to present their experience in the context of traditional knowledge and genetic resources. The relevance of a disclosure requirement in patent application to prevent wrongful patents was also discussed. [Note: Article 2 of 2]
A recent seminar convened by the World Intellectual Property Organization shed light on national and regional legislations protecting traditional knowledge, folklore and genetic resources, and provided examples of misappropriation. WIPO has a committee dealing with these issues but disagreement among members on its work programme prevented the organisation from organising any meeting of the committee so far this year. [Note: Article 1 of 2]
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is supposed to be a free trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim nations. But the TPP also includes some contentious intellectual property provisions, including a requirement that all member states have a minimum copyright term of life plus 70 years – thus forcing six nations to increase their copyright terms by 20 years. This copyright term extension is strongly criticised by some experts, who claim it is antithetical to the goals of copyright law. Moreover, this copyright term extension runs counter to the stance of the US Copyright Office, which has been trying to weaken the current US copyright term of life-plus-70. [Note: Part 2 of 2 articles]
Farmers' rights are enshrined in the international plant treaty. However, their implementation is an ongoing issue, which the plant treaty is seeking to address by looking at the interrelation that might exist with other international instruments. Separately, civil society is asserting that the World Intellectual Property Organization favours the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) in its technical assistance. But the WIPO Director General countered that this is decidedly not the case.
The World Health Organization has issued a guidance document on the design of bioequivalence studies for a leading hepatitis C medicine. Generic drug companies seeking prequalification by the WHO need to demonstrate that their generic version is equivalent to the originator drug.
BANGKOK - Thailand has toughened its copyright law to include, for the first time, responsibility of intermediaries, or internet service providers, for infringement of copyright work on the internet, and separately, to penalise people who record movies being shown in theatres without authorisation with a maximum imprisonment of four years.
The highest court of the European Patent Office has declared that plants or seeds obtained through conventional breeding methods are patentable.
Intellectual property stimulates creativity but at the same time holds back innovation, speakers said at a recent event on open innovation and alternative business models. The roundtable looked a range of models, such as open source and open data, and their advantages, to “all rights reserved” protection.
The IDA Foundation, a worldwide supplier of essential medicines to low-and medium income countries, has backed the request by least-developed countries to extend a waiver that allows them to forfeit the obligations to protect intellectual property on pharmaceutical products. UNITAID, the UN-related drug purchasing mechanism, also issued a statement in support of the extension. The request is expected to be discussed at the World Trade Organization in June.