Category IP-Watch Briefs

US Senate Judiciary Chairman Questions High Cost Of Medicare Drug Coverage

United States Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has demanded answers from the government Medicare programme regarding the rapid rise in costs of coverage of Americans’ prescription drugs. The demand follows a press report showing an extremely…

UNDP Initiative Seeks Impact-Driven Entrepreneurs From 10 Developing Countries

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a joint initiative with Impact Hub, an international community of social entrepreneurs. The initiative is a platform named "#Accelerate2030," aiming at supporting and promoting the most promising impact-driven ventures focusing on the UN Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs).

New French Law Opens Market For Non-Profits Selling Public Domain Seeds

New legislation on biodiversity has been adopted by the French National Assembly, opening doors for the sharing and selling of seeds in the public domain to amateur gardeners. For some associations that had been illegally trading public domain seeds, this is seen as a major victory.

The “Denial Playbook”: An Original Product Of The Oil Industry

New documents reveal that the oil and tobacco industries took pages from the same book to engineer their decade long campaigns on denying the existence of climate change and smoking-related cancer. The playbook also appears to have originated not with tobacco, but with the oil industry itself, and the two even appeared to share patents.

EU Anti-Counterfeiting Rapid Intelligence System: One Database For All Data On IPR Infringement

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the European Commission Trade Directorate recently launched a new intellectual property enforcement tool that aims to pool together all data relating to IP rights infringement experienced by EU companies into one database to help build prevention strategies. This is one of many new EU initiatives to counter growing IPR infringement and counterfeits.

CISAC: 90 Years In The Service Of Authors And Composers

The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), the world's leading network of authors’ societies, has published a book looking back at its 90 years in existence. The CISAC Story - 90 Years in the Service of Authors and Creators Worldwide, was distributed in three languages at the Confederation’s General Assembly last month in Paris.