Original news and analysis on international IP policy
UN International Telecommunication Union Secretary General Hamadoun Touré used a press conference on the eve of the much-anticipated World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) which starts in Dubai next week to call on the Syrian government to investigate problems of access to the mobile network and internet in Syria and do "anything necessary to restore the access."
For most people, champagne evokes a sophisticated bubbly white wine, associated with luxury and celebration. Champagne is also a region of France where this particular wine originates. The protection of geographical indications, such as champagne, but also Darjeeling tea or Idaho potatoes, is being discussed in several fora, and next week at the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The international intellectual property rights system must urgently make headway toward an easier-to-use, globally agreed upon, inclusive and effective architecture, a high-level panel of IP policy leaders said on 29 November.
After three days and two nights of tough negotiations to address the global gap in research and development for neglected diseases at the World Health Organization, member states agreed to endorse a strategic work plan that includes proposals on the coordination, financing, and monitoring of R&D expenditures separately, but not to advance the idea of an overarching framework. The recommendation for a global R&D convention proved divisive to the very end of the negotiations.
United States Ambassador Terry Kramer, head of the US delegation to the upcoming UN-led World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) in Dubai, in a press call today warned against proposals that would invite the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to get into the business of internet governance, be it routing interventions, content control issues, or changes in accounting for internet traffic. Yet reacting to an earlier call by ex-White House official Andrew McLaughlin at a New America Foundation conference to "dismantle the ITU", Kramer said: "I do not think the ITU is the problem."
European Union lawmakers will vote soon on a non-binding measure aimed at protecting genetic resources and fighting biopiracy, or misappropriation. Despite the critical importance of these issues, efforts to draw the European Parliament's attention to the resolution have been difficult and its outcome is less than clear, its author says.
Negotiations on the follow-up of the report of the expert group on research and development for neglected diseases tonight were continuing in a late-night session at the World Health Organization. At press time, member states were discussing options to address the research coordination, financing, and monitoring of medical R&D expenditures for the health needs of developing countries.
International copyright flexibilities are ill-suited to the need of developing countries to create effective access to printed materials in schools, a new book argues. The author, whose work was presented last week at the World Intellectual Property Organization, urges a normative and institutional rethinking of the current system.
Several countries have established fast-track programmes to expedite the examination of environmentally oriented, or “green,” patents. Preliminary findings from a study assessing the success of those programmes were presented last week to Geneva intellectual property professionals.
World Health Organization member states gathering this week at the WHO headquarters in a meeting to address global gaps in the drug development system said that there is still much work to be done before consensus can be reached on a resolution. For now, the latest draft resolution keeps a wide range of monitoring, coordinating, and financing options on the table, not yet setting a clear direction.
Criminal sanctions for intellectual property rights infringement are to be dropped from the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), according to a set of documents leaked by Montreal daily La Presse.
Harmonisation of Africa’s seed laws: death knell for African seed systems The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has released its new report titled, ‘Harmonisation of Africa’s seed laws: a recipe for disaster- Players, motives and dynamics”. The report shows how…