Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By William New and Kaitlin Mara Intellectual property issues have been a topic of debate at the World Trade Organization ministerial negotiations since Friday and while there have been no changes in positions there has been some talk of looking…
[Note: IP issues may be the subject of meetings between ministers and WTO DG Lamy over this weekend, according to sources.] By Kaitlin Mara and William New A new draft of proposed modalities for negotiating three intellectual property issues at…
By Wagdy Sawahel for Intellectual Property Watch CAIRO – African countries recently approved a plan to set up a parliamentary knowledge network to enhance legislative and institutional capacity for creating science and technology-based legislation including intellectual property rights. But the…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Despite earlier statements by European negotiators that the planned Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) would need time for fine-tuning, nations seem to accept a fast track movement now. ACTA has been mentioned as an…
By Kaitlin Mara A confidential draft text circulated recently among some World Trade Organization members reveals an attempt to consolidate separate proposals aimed at the protection of product names with location-related associations and characteristics (called geographical indications) and at the…
By William New The World Intellectual Property Organization’s newest and potentially highest impact committee – aimed at ensuring all of the organisation’s activities are sufficiently development-friendly to fit its wide-ranging membership – completed its first year with some concrete progress…
By William New Members of the new World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) this week are negotiating implementation of agreed changes to WIPO practices intended to ensure they are development-friendly. Perhaps predictably, countries with the…
By Kaitlin Mara The final decisions of the ninth and most recent meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) organising body have been released, which include the breakthrough results of a work plan for achieving an international access and…
By Kaitlin Mara A “landmark” decision was made last week by a unique intergovernmental initiative for drug financing in poor and underserved areas: an agreement on the usefulness of sharing intellectual property rights to lower costs and increase quality of…
By Claudia Jurberg for Intellectual Property Watch RIO DE JANEIRO – Last year, Brazil and India presented their candidacies and were accepted to operate as international authorities for patent searches at the World Intellectual Property Organization. In addition, Brazil suggested…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch MANCHESTER, UK – The basic framework of the intellectual property (IP) regime aims to “close down access to knowledge” rather than allowing its dissemination, Professor Joseph Stiglitz said at a 5 July lecture…
[Note: the summary text of the Policy Commission session is now available here] By Kaitlin Mara Concerns ran high in some developing countries last week that their voices have been largely absent from a draft set of standards for heightened…