Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Nonprofit group Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) has requested a study by the World Intellectual Property Organization on the case law of the non-voluntary use of patents as a limitation on remedies, Andrew Goldman, counsel for policy and legal affairs at KEI, said at a side event to a WIPO meeting this week.
Discussions carried out at the World Intellectual Property Organization patent law committee this week reflect strong interest for the subjects but from different angles. Topics such as how patents may affect access to medicines are favoured by some countries, while others view patents as the main enabler of innovative new products. Some find collaborative work between patent offices primordial, while others worry that it could be harmonisation in disguise. Proposals are not lacking about activities to be conducted in the committee but countries need to agree on those which meet their common goals. [Update: the committee finished early with an agreement on future work. Story to come shortly.]
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus began his first week as director-general of the UN World Health Organization by addressing the WHO staff with his vision for the organisation and the world. Top of the list? Humanity.
The intergovernmental Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, France, has published a freely available report on exceptions and limitations to copyright. The report comes as a contribution to the ongoing process of reforming European copyright rules.
MONTREUX -- The legal profession is experiencing a “radical change” due to technology, a globally known author told the recent European IP Law Summit in Montreux, Switzerland. Technology has become “affordable” and professions “unaffordable” in a technology-based internet society, he said. Separately, a Belgian appeals court judge laid out details on the Unified Patent Court of Europe.
An African medicines agency, the continent’s first super-regulator, could be approved as soon as next year.
The European Patent Office today released a new policy brief on climate change mitigation technologies, with a focus on renewable energy technologies, which are on the rise.
Marie-Paule Kieny, fresh out of the World Health Organization, where she held the position of assistant director general for Health Systems and Innovation, will be the new chair of the Medicines Patent Pool, as of 1 September.
The Canadian Supreme Court today upheld a pharmaceutical industry appeal against a tool used in certain cases to overturn patents on products that could be seen as not meriting a patent monopoly. The ruling could effectively block a generic version of a patented drug from being on the market.
NAIROBI, Kenya - A generic version of dolutegravir (DTG), the drug of choice for the last two years for people living with HIV in high-income countries, is now available in Africa. On 28 June, the government of Kenya and drug pricing and innovation mechanism Unitaid unveiled the new first-line drug in an effort to accelerate access to better antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for her people living with HIV. It becomes the first country in Africa to introduce the generic version of drug.
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Organization Agreement this week, several speakers and delegates called for a further expansion of the landmark deal, possibly in ways that include digital trade and better incorporate developing countries. Many information and communication technology (ICT) products are not part of the list of products under the ITA, speakers said, and negotiations about an expansion of the list of products may take a long time.
The European Patent Office today issued a clarification about the patenting of plant and animal products, putting it in line with a European Commission clarification that such products obtained through a biological breeding process should not be patentable.