Original news and analysis on international IP policy
KAMPALA - In the western terrains of Uganda, in a refugee camp, Dr. Moses Kizza Musaazi invented and is running a simple but ingenious scheme. Making environmentally friendly sanitary pads out of papyrus reeds. The pads, MakaPads sanitary pads, are the only trademarked biodegradable sanitary pads made in Africa. Dr. Musaazi developed the idea and technique while looking for a way to help school-going girls.
A huge majority of the European Parliament today called for a stop to mass surveillance and a digital "New Deal" to enpower European citizens and companies following a six-month inquiry into the US National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence service surveillance programmes by the Parliamen's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
A recent book by a UK journalist and lecturer illustrates that recent reforms in global public health policy have ignored public health needs in favour of market-based ideologies.
The World Intellectual Property Organization committee on trademarks will address three main issues next week. Among them, delegates will look to advance a draft treaty facilitating the international registration of industrial designs, and try to agree on how to address technical assistance in that draft treaty. In addition, the United States has a proposal to invite into the committee discussions on a proposed revision of the Lisbon Agreement on the Protection of Appellations of Origins, and Jamaica is pursuing its effort at a stronger international soft law for the protection of country names against use as trademarks.
The World Trade Organization and World Intellectual Property Organization are jointly offering a course this week on all aspects of intellectual property to a group of officials from developing countries and countries in transition, the WTO has said.
On the eve of European Parliament's final decision on consequences from revelations of mass surveillance directed against citizens, several members of the Parliament heavily criticised EU governments for the lack of action.
A United States government agency later this month will hold the first meeting of a multistakeholder forum on improving the operation of the widespread notice and takedown system for removing infringing content from the internet.
In a final report before the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) today, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food called for a redesigned world food system to ensure the human right to adequate food and freedom from hunger. This includes some changes to the way intellectual property rights apply to food and agriculture.
Last January, Egypt and Tunisia enacted new constitutions which provide for the protection of intellectual property rights, at the constitutional level, for the first time in the history of both countries. In addition, they include clauses which give priority to building a knowledge economy, Ahmed Abdel-Latif writes.
Traditional medical knowledge would be best protected through liability rules instead of patents, according to a book exploring the applicability of intellectual property rights to traditional medical knowledge protection, and in particular if IP rights are suitable to promote the goals of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
Among the Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis in Geneva this week, high-level representatives of the auto industry, the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) discussed issues of safety, data sharing and standardisation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published draft guidelines on sugars intake to reduce non-communicable diseases linked to obesity and dental caries.