Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Harmonisation of Africa’s seed laws: death knell for African seed systems The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has released its new report titled, ‘Harmonisation of Africa’s seed laws: a recipe for disaster- Players, motives and dynamics”. The report shows how…
The Creation of Unitary Patent Protection in the European Union
Paris, 29-30 November 2012
Maison de la Recherche
54, rue de Varenne
75007 Paris
Find here (http://bit.ly/Vbb2CB) more information about the conference.
After more than 30 years of negotiations, 25 of 27 Member States reached a conclusion on the future Unitary Patent System. The central aim of the two draft Regulations on the creation of unitary patent protection and on the applicable translation arrangements is to reduce the costs of patent protection and translation fees in the EU. The European Council on 28-29 June 2012 agreed to split the seat of the EU Patent Court between Paris, London and Munich. The Council’s suggestion to delete Articles 6-8 of the draft Regulation on the creation of the unitary patent provoked strong criticism in the European Parliament which postponed the vote on the proposal scheduled for 4 July 2012. A conference organised by the Academy of European Law (ERA) in cooperation with Queen Mary University of London in Paris on 29-30 November 2012 will offer a platform for discussion on the latest proposals which are now being discussed within the European Parliament.
UNITAID, an alternative funding mechanism for pharmaceuticals to the poor, said today that its work has helped develop new ways to treat children infected with HIV where there was previously little commercial incentive. The statement alongside the World AIDS Day announcement that the number of newly infected children continues to decline. UNITAID called for the international community to help children already living with the disease.
The European Commission and African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) yesterday signed a cooperation agreement on the protection of traditional agricultural products from specific geographical locations or with specific characteristics.
World Health Organization member states and official non-governmental observers will gather at the WHO headquarters this week for an open-ended meeting to analyse the feasibility of new models for financing research and development for diseases lacking sufficient market incentives and public policies.
All substantive documents filed for the UN-led World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) have been made public, many of them for the first time.
The debates are getting more heated with the December World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) in Dubai coming closer. Google today (21 November) launched one of its big campaigns to rally support against what it says is an attempt by some countries to “further regulate the internet” and potentially limit free speech through censorship.
The World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Body yesterday heard arguments by parties in a dispute about Australia's new public health law requiring tobacco imports to be in plain packaging as a way to discourage tobacco use. Honduras presented a challenge to the Australian law, saying it is not in line with WTO rules on intellectual property rights, while Australia said it is a "sound, well-considered" action in the name of public health.
The ETC Group has issued a warning that "agribusiness giants Monsanto, DuPont and Dow are plotting the boldest coup of a global food crop in history," as they have applied to the Mexican government for the planting of transgenic maize on 2,500,000 hectares, approximately the size of El Salvador.
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria appointed Ambassador Mark Dybul, a former US Global AIDS Coordinator, as the new head of the organisation. Additionally, the Board decided to move forward on implementing a new funding model, replacing the rounds-based system.
Greg Perry, a longtime leader in the European generics industry, has been named the new executive director of the Medicines Patent Pool, a cutting-edge Geneva-based group working to increase access to affordable, high-quality medicines for HIV/AIDS patients in low and middle income countries.
The industry practice of extending patent protection on pharmaceuticals by obtaining additional patents on other features of the drug ingredients can lead to decades of delay in generic competition, a new study argues.