Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Public health group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced today that it has joined civil society organisations from 17 countries in Europe in filing a patent challenge at the European Patent Office to Gilead’s patent on sofosbuvir, an important treatment for hepatitis C.
TB Alliance and the Medicines Patent Pool announced today a licensing agreement for the development of sutezolid, a new antibiotic drug candidate which may be used to treat tuberculosis.
European Patent Office President Benoît Battistelli today in Brussels expressed confidence that the first European Union unitary patent could be granted by the end of this year despite continued delays in the ratification process.But doubts remain.
At the world‘s biggest computer fair, the CEBIT in Hannover, Germany today, an official of the European Patent Office promoted patents for computer-implemented inventions (CII), also called software patents by critics. CII continues to grow considerably, according to EPO.
A new policy brief from the Centre for International Governance Innovation, in Waterloo, Canada argues that Canada should pursue a weaker national patent regime. Acknowledging that Canada already has agreed to certain levels of protection through international treaties and trade agreements, Blit warns that future agreements that strengthen intellectual property protections would not benefit Canada.
Representatives of Chilean civil society and Congress this week presented the Chilean health minister with a proposal urging the government to take advantage of international trade law and a newly passed congressional resolution to issue compulsory licences on high-priced drugs for hepatitis C and prostate cancer.
A letter made public only by a United States Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request confirms that Michelle Lee remains the director of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), ending a mystery that has been curiously kept secret since President Trump took office over 50 days ago.
It is still a long way to a new generation of "open scientists", German open data researcher Christian Heise found out in his just-published PhD thesis. Heise not only investigated drivers and barriers for what he expects to be an evolution from open access to open science by theory and a survey of over 1100 scientists. He tried the concept open science the hard way, opening up the writing of his thesis paper on the net.
The European Patent Office published its 2016 annual report today, showing an “unprecedented level of patent filings,” and underlining the growing number of patent applications from China. The top technical fields for applications included medical technology, digital communication, and pharmaceuticals.
An "Access to Vaccines Index" was released today in the Netherlands that claims to "reveal the first landscape of vaccine company actions to improve immunisation coverage."
Internet television broadcasting service TVCatchup (TVC) may not offer live streams of free-to-air TV broadcasts without permission, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said in a 1 March judgment.
Big Pharma wants to develop treatments for rare diseases, with government support. The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) this week launched a new report describing policy priorities to increase research and development into rare diseases.