Original news and analysis on international IP policy
United States Trade Representative Michael Froman and Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman met in Delhi today and discussed various bilateral issues including intellectual property rights. Based on the release from the meeting, it appears much of the IP focus was on tasks for India to do to better protect IP rights.
Intellectual property and competition authorities should collaborate, but other institutions should also have their say, such as health ministries, speakers said at a United Nations meeting of experts this week. And guidelines should be provided to judges in the difficult task of determining whether IP rights monopolies impede on competition, they said. This special report takes a deeper look at IPRs, competition, and differing economies.
The World Health Organization pandemic influenza framework advisory group is meeting this week, behind closed doors. A consultation is expected to take place on 20 October with stakeholders, and an information session has been organised on 21 October on the work of the advisory group, but no press is allowed in either meeting nor able to obtain any information about any aspect of the week’s events.
A side event to last week’s annual General Assemblies of the World Intellectual Property Organization looked at ways for developing countries to design sui generis system for protecting new varieties of plant. The event also looked into the technical assistance provided by WIPO, which, according to the groups, focuses only on the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) system.
The term “Open” in science is all the rage these days.
The supposedly impossible happened: The Marrakesh Treaty entered into force on 30 September, three months after reaching the necessary minimum of 20 ratifications. By then, 22 countries had done so – two more did so during the Marrakesh Assembly.
At last week's first-ever Assembly of the Marrakesh Treaty, Intellectual Property Watch caught up with the Assembly Chair, new Brazilian Culture Minister Marcelo Calero. He talked briefly about the importance of libraries and of implementing the Marrakesh Treaty.
“Great victory”, “life-changing”, “historic milestone” - no adjectives were strong enough yesterday to celebrate the entry into force of the Marrakesh treaty at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The treaty, which went into effect on 30 September, "opens the door to the world's knowledge," to visually impaired people, but will need many more countries to join, in particular countries that are major producers of special format books - the United States and the European Union.
The World Intellectual Property Organization treaty on copyright exceptions for print-disabled readers entered into effect on 30 September, and trading in accessible format works began immediately. This week, the treaty will be a highlight of the annual WIPO General Assemblies, and is expected to come up at the parallel UN Social Forum taking place next door.
Now is the time for those who want to bring new voices to the digital trade and general trade debate involving the World Trade Organization, says an adviser to a leading security think tank in Switzerland.
NEW YORK – Speakers at a side event to the United Nations General Assembly last week commended a new report on access to medicines prepared by a high-level panel hand-chosen by the UN secretary general as containing fresh ideas and the potential to bring change to a longstanding problem.
Although the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiation has raised significant concerns from civil society during negotiations, including about the intellectual property chapter, speakers on a panel during the World Trade Organization Public Forum yesterday said the agreement actually includes a positive provision on copyright, while some other free trade agreements under discussion still include stringent proposals on IP.