Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The World Health Organization-led working group of member states addressing “substandard/spurious/falsely-labelled/falsified/counterfeit” (SSFFC) medical products has reached consensus on a new mechanism to prevent and control SSFFC medical products and associated activities. The creation of the new mechanism comes as the future of WHO involvement in an interagency anti-counterfeiting taskforce is in question.
Enforcement of intellectual property proved to be a point of contention among World Trade Organization members at this week’s meeting of the Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Meanwhile, despite debate, the Council extended the deadline for members to accept a TRIPS amendment on public health, leaving the December WTO ministerial to consider that extension plus an extension on a moratorium on so-called non-violation cases under TRIPS.
The US Copyright Office today issued its priorities and projects for the next two years, targeting studies, legislation, trade and foreign relations, and administrative law.
The European Union high court today outlawed the patenting of human embryo stem cells for scientific research or commercial purposes. The decision has forced European courts to examine the “ethical boundaries of patenting,” said Greenpeace, which challenged a German patent in the case. While there are alternate methods for obtaining stem cells, the ruling will nevertheless affect some research, one patent lawyer said.
World Intellectual Property Organization members this month approved a range of reports from WIPO negotiating committees and took note of changes within the UN agency. Now with the annual WIPO General Assemblies over, work has begun on a hefty policymaking work programme this autumn. Here’s a rundown of what’s coming.
Resignations, retirements, appointments, and promotions are shaking up the status quo in the intellectual property world, opening the door of possibility for change in strategy and decision-making across industries and sectors.
An international private-sector network lobbying for the protection of geographical indications is set to establish a compilation of all GIs currently protected in the world in what could seem like a response to the repeated failure of governments to agree on the establishment of a GIs register at the World Trade Organization. The Organization for an International Geographical Indications Network (OriGIn), meeting for its fifth General Assembly, also voiced concerns about the lack of protection of GIs in cyberspace.
Social media has changed the old-fashioned rules of diplomacy, a senior US State Department advisor on social media told aspiring diplomats in Geneva today. The established rules of decorum and etiquette are giving way to a more interactive, less hierarchical system.
As some developed countries prepared to ink a secret plurilateral trade agreement against rampant global piracy and counterfeiting in recent days, leading emerging economies and non-governmental groups warned the World Intellectual Property Organization that such outside agreements need to respect broader societal impacts of IP rights enforcement or risk abuses of international rules on trade and development.
World Intellectual Property Organization members yesterday agreed to attempt completion in 2012 of long-stalled negotiations on a treaty giving clearer protection to the rights of actors and others performing in audiovisual productions. The breakthrough is being seen as good for the multilateral system and, if successfully concluded, for actors and others in developing countries.