Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The international organisation providing and promoting intellectual property protection for new plant varieties held the annual meeting of its governing body last week. New member requests were examined while civil society warned against a draft African legal framework on plant variety protection that they said could impact the dominant subsistence farming systems in some African states.
This week the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is holding the annual meeting of its governing body, and preparatory meetings leading up to it. A seminar also is being held on essentially derived varieties. Meanwhile, civil society is asking that all the meeting documents be held public while demonstrating that restricted documents can be obtained through national freedom of information rights.
The World Health Organization is putting the finishing touches on an implementation plan for industry's financial participation in the global influenza preparedness strategy. This week the advisory group met to discuss a draft plan presented by the WHO secretariat, which should now come up with a revised version for implementation in early 2014, according to the chair of the advisory group.
Two scientists with a connection to Geneva have published an unorthodox e-book entitled, Guide for the perplexed entering the Maze of Genetic Resources Traditional Knowledge and Folklore.
A panel of industry representatives presented their views at the World Trade Organization on the diffusion of innovation, calling intellectual property rights key to the process. Meanwhile, another panel looked at innovation as a growth strategy for the global South.
A newly awarded patent on a process allowing parents to choose genetic traits from prospective donors for their children is creating a buzz in the United States and beyond.
According to the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, five new ratifications have brought the 2010 treaty on the protection of genetic resources closer to ratification.
A closed-door working group under the World Health Organization will meet next week to continue working out details of a plan for companies to pay for the right to use influenza virus strains to potentially develop patented treatments.
Last week, WIPO members that are parties to a special agreement on the protection of appellations of origin agreed to convene a diplomatic conference in 2015 to adopt a revision of the 1958 Lisbon Agreement. The revised treaty would extend to all geographical indications the protection already granted to appellations of origin. The decision to convene a diplomatic conference, however, stirred up controversy with a number of WIPO members that are not parties to the treaty.
The World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly today renewed the mandate of its committee working on the protection of genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions. The full membership approved a deal reached in an informal session on 27 September, and statements made today showed that profound differences remain.
World Intellectual Property Organization members this evening reached a hard-won preliminary agreement on a path to a high-level negotiation of treaties or other instruments for the protection of traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources. The tentative deal, reached in informal meetings, creates an intensive work programme for the next year and a final decision in September 2014. The plan will have to go before the full WIPO membership in plenary as soon as Monday.
A recent report by a United Nations agency calls for an urgent shift of paradigm in agricultural development.