Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The high technology remains unconvinced by efforts in the United States Senate to reform US patent laws, a Washington tech industry association said today, as debate on the bill began on the Senate floor.
The European Parliament today approved a new law aimed at preventing falsified medicines from entering the legal supply chain, according to a Parliament press release. The law needs to be formally approved by the Council of Ministers.
Shortly after passage last year of the US healthcare reform act called for a regulatory pathway to bring follow-on biologic drugs, or biosimilars, to market with 12 years of data exclusivity for brand-name producers, the Obama administration has proposed to reduce that time to its original 7 years, according to sources. The move, contained in the 2012 budget proposal, is expected to allow lower priced generic versions of drugs to enter the market sooner, a benefit to consumers.
Watchdog organisation Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) yesterday filed a complaint at the European General Court against the European Commission's denial of access to information on the EU-India bilateral trade talks.
A United Nations independent expert yesterday issued a statement on Australia's aid programmes for countries in need, praising some of the country's work but warning that it not use such aid to pressure regional governments to enter into free trade agreements with it.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office yesterday submitted a request to the US Congress for a budget increase in 2012 on expectations of a rise in patent and trademark applications and promises of reductions in application processing times.
A new study finds that publicly funded research has had a greater positive impact on public health than previously believed.
The non-profit ETC Group has released a report on global governance of nanoscale technologies that showed that thousands of patents are being granted on this still little understood area of science.
The United States Chamber of Commerce, the industry lobbying giant in Washington, has issued its 2011 intellectual property agenda. The list of suggested legislative changes to be made by the Obama administration and the US Congress aim at further increasing resources and support for IP enforcement, including legislation to block websites deemed to infringe on IP rights.
The recently completed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), negotiated by the countries that own most of the world's intellectual property rights, is aimed at developing countries they hope will give value to those rights by protecting them, leaked documents show, according to French group La Quadrature du Net.