Original news and analysis on international IP policy
UN International Telecommunication Union Secretary General Hamadoun Touré used a press conference on the eve of the much-anticipated World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) which starts in Dubai next week to call on the Syrian government to investigate problems of access to the mobile network and internet in Syria and do "anything necessary to restore the access."
After three days and two nights of tough negotiations to address the global gap in research and development for neglected diseases at the World Health Organization, member states agreed to endorse a strategic work plan that includes proposals on the coordination, financing, and monitoring of R&D expenditures separately, but not to advance the idea of an overarching framework. The recommendation for a global R&D convention proved divisive to the very end of the negotiations.
United States Ambassador Terry Kramer, head of the US delegation to the upcoming UN-led World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) in Dubai, in a press call today warned against proposals that would invite the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to get into the business of internet governance, be it routing interventions, content control issues, or changes in accounting for internet traffic. Yet reacting to an earlier call by ex-White House official Andrew McLaughlin at a New America Foundation conference to "dismantle the ITU", Kramer said: "I do not think the ITU is the problem."
International copyright flexibilities are ill-suited to the need of developing countries to create effective access to printed materials in schools, a new book argues. The author, whose work was presented last week at the World Intellectual Property Organization, urges a normative and institutional rethinking of the current system.
Several countries have established fast-track programmes to expedite the examination of environmentally oriented, or “green,” patents. Preliminary findings from a study assessing the success of those programmes were presented last week to Geneva intellectual property professionals.
World Health Organization member states gathering this week at the WHO headquarters in a meeting to address global gaps in the drug development system said that there is still much work to be done before consensus can be reached on a resolution. For now, the latest draft resolution keeps a wide range of monitoring, coordinating, and financing options on the table, not yet setting a clear direction.
Four of the world's most populous nations are in Southeast Asia and with roughly two-thirds of its population lacking access to medicines, the region holds promise for the cheaper generic drugs. Already, observers are taking note of how the region is changing the dynamics of the global business.
After a long week of discussions, delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization last night adopted a working draft text that could become a treaty or other instrument providing copyright exceptions for visually impaired people, and agreed to send the text to the WIPO extraordinary General Assembly next month.
All substantive documents filed for the UN-led World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) have been made public, many of them for the first time.
Negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization on the draft text of a treaty on copyright exceptions to benefit visually impaired persons are heading into the final evening of a weeklong committee meeting. Negotiators have made several modifications to the text since yesterday, and work is continuing.
Non-governmental organisations this week vehemently voiced their positions at the World Intellectual Property Organization on a text that could become a treaty increasing access to books by visually impaired people. The NGO exercise unveiled a range of stances on what the treaty should and should not do.
Despite long hours of discussions yesterday, World Intellectual Property Organization delegates working on a draft document that could become a treaty/instrument to provide exceptions to copyright for visually impaired persons will have to come back to the text (below) today to try and bridge differences. For now, the meeting has moved on to a possible treaty on broadcasters' rights.