Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The United States Supreme Court came to a decision yesterday on the case of Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., striking down Myriad’s patent on isolating human genes from the bloodstream.
The United Nations Human Rights Council today adopted a resolution urging governments to encourage technology development and transfer and to apply intellectual property rights measures in ways that avoid creating barriers to trade in “affordable, safe, efficacious and quality medicines.” The resolution includes references to IP flexibilities in international trade law and to “delinkage” of R&D costs with the price of health products.
Draft legislation updating UK copyright exceptions is out for comment, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released an updated guidance document on pandemic influenza risk management, which includes the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework for the sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits that was discussed by member states during the 66th World Health Assembly (WHA) in May.
A recent Geneva-based study found that so-called evergreening practices utilised by drug manufacturers are successful in protecting profits by maintaining company market share and offsetting generic competition and cost containment policies.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) this week accepted another set of advice from its Government Advisory Committee (GAC) with regard to new top-level domain applications.
Secrecy in trade negotiations and privileged access for business and trade associations does not violate EU law, according to a judgment handed in by the Court of the European Union in Luxembourg today.
Officials from the IP5, the five largest intellectual property offices in the world, met this week to move forward on harmonising patent law procedure between the offices.
Thirteen years after publication of the landmark report, “Tobacco Company Strategies to Undermine Tobacco Control Activities at the World Health Organization,” little has changed and industry manipulations continue, one of the lead authors has said.
Lower-income countries receive much less attention in terms of clinical trial research, according to a study published in this month’s World Health Organization (WHO) Bulletin. The study also underscored the value and importance the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) provides as a resource for evaluating the distribution of clinical trials around the world, and for providing information for future policy on health R&D.