Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The rapporteur of the lead committee of the European Parliament on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, David Martin, today published his draft recommendation on the highly controversial agreement. If the International Trade Committee agrees on the draft, the plenary will be asked to state that it "declines to consent to conclusion of the agreement."
Executive Director Ellen 't Hoen is departing the Medicines Patent Pool, the cutting edge UN spin-off project that works to lower prices on and stimulate new development of HIV medicines and other products through negotiating voluntary licence agreements. According to a release, 't Hoen has fulfilled the mission of guiding the organisation from a startup onto "firm footing" and has informed the Board that she will leave on 1 May.
Pressure is growing in Europe for open, free access to research results, particularly if they are publicly funded. The European Commission (EC) said this week it will propose a plan for open access soon, while the Wellcome Trust and Research Councils UK are cracking down on researchers who don't comply with their policies.
Rapporteurs for three committees of the European Parliament (Legal, Industry and Trade, and International Trade) have tabled reports or announced what they will propose on the plurilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). And the Group of 8 may have signalled a shift to a narrower approach on intellectual property rights at its meeting last week.
Country delegates will try to make progress on a treaty text to protect traditional knowledge from misappropriation at the World Intellectual Property Organization next week. The hope of many is to bring it far enough for the annual members’ meeting in October to schedule a high-level treaty negotiation next year.
It’s unclear if the US Supreme Court wants to address yet another controversial issue in patent law, but on 2 April, the court took a small step in that direction. That’s when the court formally asked the US Justice Department to opine on whether the high court should grant certiorari in Bowman v. Monsanto Co.
A letter co-signed by 49 former staff members of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development denouncing efforts by some countries to muffle the institution's voice was released yesterday at a press conference.
In 2010, institutions in Albania created a strategy to help enforce intellectual property rights within five years. Intellectual Property Watch recently conducted a written Q and A with Vladimir Nika, Albanian office director for the Eastern European law firm PETOŠEVIĆ, on the progress and prospects for the Albanian legislature’s implementation of the 2010 IPR enforcement strategy.
Intellectual property-intensive industries in the United States support at least 40 million jobs and contribute more than $5 trillion - or 34.8 percent of - US gross domestic product (GDP), according to a report released by the Obama administration Wednesday.
The quadrennial conference of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) sets the course of the UN body work for the next four years. The mandate of the conference has evolved since its creation to become mainly a provider of research, policy analysis and technical assistance to developing countries. This time around, the conference will serve as a wide-ranging forum for trade and development issues, and intellectual property issues will haunt discussions in several areas.
The UN World Intellectual Property Organization has responded to a question about its provision of technical assistance to North Korea, saying it is standard procedure as authorised by its member states hoping to bring developing countries on board the global IP system.
In response to a report published on 3 April by civil society group No Patent on Seeds alleging that industry and patent examiners in the European Patent Office are finding legal loopholes to grant patents on seeds and plants, an EPO spokesperson told Intellectual Property Watch the patent office does not "apply tricks" to grant patents.