Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The International Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business organisation, today was granted observer status at the United Nations General Assembly, given business a direct voice in the UN system for the first time ever, the ICC announced.
Opening a conference on patent quality today, United States Patent and Trademark Office Director Michele Lee highlighted efforts of the administration in improving the quality of patents and addressing backlog of patent applications. Patent backlog is down by one-third since the start of the Obama administration, she said.
The United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has released a report on encryption, taking the perspective of human rights.
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case over whether companies that make copycat versions of biologic drugs must wait six months after winning federal approval before bringing them to the market.
According to the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies, the proposed European Commission copyright reform is detrimental to authors' interests, and contrary to the objective of creating a single digital market.
The winners of the 2016 Patents for Humanity Award of the United States Patent and Trademark Office this year are recognised for providing global disease solutions. The inventions relate to malaria, vaccines, a life-threatening pregnancy complication, and meningitis.
Cristiana Paşca Palmer of Romania has been named executive secretary of the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Pfizer Board Chairman and CEO Ian Read has been elected as the next president of the Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), a two-year role.
A new academic report looks into the relationship between intellectual property and access to science and culture, in the wake of work on the issue by former United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed. Contributors to the report aimed at reflecting on how the intellectual property system can foster economic growth while encouraging non-economic values and objectives of human development.
As 16 Asia and Pacific nations prepare to meet in Indonesia next week for the next round of negotiations for a large regional trade agreement called RCEP, more than 300 civil society groups signed a letter urging negotiators to reject efforts to bring in texts from the separate Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The Staff Association of the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) this week issued a strongly worded statement in solidarity with staff at the European Patent Office. They called the EPO essential to Europe and said the EPO president's repressive "19th century"-style anti-worker tactics are endangering the institution and the European economy.
The European Union Council of member states today agreed on draft regulations to prevent blocking of cross-border e-commerce, but appears to retain copyright restrictions.