Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The European Union and Canada held an informal meeting in Geneva this week to present a project for a multilateral investment court to handle global investor-state disputes, hoping to draw interest and questions by other country delegates, according to sources. Time will be needed to gain acceptance of the idea, they said, and the next opportunity will be at the January World Economic Forum in Davos.
The World Intellectual Property Organization patent law committee this week became the latest venue for the global debate over the system to provide incentives to the pharmaceutical industry to find new medicines while ensuring all patients have access to those medicines. Most developing countries want the committee to discuss the recommendations of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, while most developed countries disagree. The tone is rising, and the issue could come as a hurdle as countries decide the future work of the committee.
The European Commission and the Canadian government today and tomorrow are hosting a first meeting for talks on a new multilateral investment court. Such a court could, the European Commission explained in an announcement, become the follow-up mechanism for the existing investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions that are part of 3,200 bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements around the world.
The World Intellectual Property Organization patent law committee is a unique international forum where discussions about the patent system are held. The committee meeting this week is a display of different views of developed and developing countries on how the patent system is expected to meet their needs.
A new study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) finds that geographical indications could open the way to lucrative export markets for least-developed countries. The study calls for UN agencies to support those countries in their effort to develop GIs and diversify their exports, but warns about the need for capacity building and financial help, and raises biodiversity concerns of GI intensification.
A meeting of the Board of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has concluded with a set of decisions (attached) showing that the Board went farther than just noting the UNAIDS secretariat report on intellectual property-related barriers preventing access to medicines. And the Board, after lengthy discussions, also called on UNAIDS to facilitate discussions on the high-profile report of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel for Access to Medicines.
In a first-impression case with implications for international trade, the United States Supreme Court is set to decide whether the US supplier of a single non-infringing article used in an infringing product abroad can be held liable for worldwide damages under US patent law. The case hinges on the meaning of “substantial” and whether US law can extend beyond its borders.
The United States Supreme Court yesterday provided a big victory for Samsung – and common sense, according to many experts. The high court ruled that Samsung need not pay $399 million in damages – all the company’s profits from 11 models of smartphones – simply because one or two tiny components of those phones infringed design patents owned by Apple. But Samsung isn’t out of the woods yet. Because despite the importance of today’s Supreme Court decision, the high court left an even more important issue unresolved.
The much-awaited decision of the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Body on Australia’s law requiring that tobacco products be sold in plain packages, challenged by four countries, has been postponed and is now expected "not before May 2017."
A new register of intellectual property in the field of military and defence will soon be established in Russia in accordance with a recent decision of the national government, according to the state press service.