Original news and analysis on international IP policy
As autumn rolled in, two United Nations agencies chose global figures to help them with their missions, another has a new website, and changed heads, while non-governmental organisations, law offices, and industry also saw numerous changes at management level.
The emphasis placed on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property for medicines in trade negotiations is ignoring the distorting effects of this emphasis, such as the lack of competition incentives which are key to reduce medicines prices, speakers on a panel of generic drug industries said at the World Trade Organization Public Forum last week.
Electronic commerce was a focus of the World Trade Organization Public Forum last week, a nod to its continuing rise in global importance. Several panels looked at how to integrate developing countries and small and medium-size enterprises into the global stream of online trade. Although ecommerce is an opportunity for developing countries, many hurdles remain for them, most obviously the digital divide, speakers said.
Competition policy has evolved along with globalization and trade in past years. Now there are challenges such as the growth in international trade transactions and rapidly increasing cross-border mergers and antitrust cases. In parallel, the proliferation of competition policies and system has created potential of conflict of jurisdiction. Experts on competition and trade policies came together during the World Trade Organization Public Forum last week to discuss what the WTO can do and how better coordination between the competition policy and trade policy can be achieved to support growth and inclusiveness.
The US Supreme Court agreed on 29 September to take up the question of whether the Lanham Act, which allows the US Patent and Trademark Office to refuse to register disparaging trademarks, conflicts with the First Amendment right to free speech.
Voluntary standards are seen by some as acting as barriers to trade, in particular for developing countries unable to meet the requirements of those private standards. At the World Trade Organization Public Forum, two panels presented two approaches, one looking at governments' role in voluntary sustainability standards, and launching a report by a multi-agency United Nations initiative on those standards. The other one focused on the challenges private standards can represent for developing countries.
A lot of skepticism about global trade has arisen just at a time when there is the potential to involve large swaths of the population who were previously not able to access the international exchange of commerce.
Patent infringers are supposed to pay damages, but the award in this case struck many as ridiculous. Some Samsung smartphones contained one or two purely decorative design elements that had been patented by Apple. But instead of paying modest damages for what many see as a tiny infringement, Samsung was ordered to pay $399 million – all the profits the company had made from its infringing phones. The Federal Circuit said it had no choice but to approve those damages; it was constrained by statute. Critics, however, said that the Federal Circuit had misinterpreted the statute. They fret the court’s error will unleash a wave of design patent infringement suits that will harm innovation, stifle competition, and empower patent trolls. Which is why so many will be paying close attention on 11 October, when this dispute comes before the US Supreme Court.
Although regional trade agreements are increasing, there is no hiding the fact that they are meeting rising resistance from the public and are difficult to negotiate. At the World Trade Organization Public Forum this week, an industry panel sought to explore how trade agreements could be linked to the WTO process, and if elements of those agreements could be taken on at the multilateral level.
The world is seeing a decline in openness in economies, the World Economic Forum said in its new Global Competitiveness Report 2016 - 2017. But WEF sees an increased role for technology, innovation and business sophistication. And the most competitive nation in the world? Switzerland again.