Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Australian Pharmaceutical Patents Review yesterday issued its draft report, recommending that the Australian government reduce pharmaceutical patent extension terms and use estimated savings to subsidise research and development.
New Delhi - On 1 April, in a packed room in India’s Supreme Court, two judges - Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Desai - delivered a verdict that has the potential to dramatically change the national and global conversation about patents and patients.
The Indian fair trade regulator has dismissed a complaint against biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences that alleged the company engaged in anti-competitive activities in the licensing of its anti-HIV drugs, according to the SpicyIP blog.
Bangkok, Thailand - Experts on geographical indications ended two days of discussions here by acknowledging greatly the benefit of GIs to national economies and cultural heritages, but conceded that it has been tough to reach a multilateral agreement on the protection of this type of intellectual property. [Updated]
Lyon, France – Biovision, a biennial international event on life sciences, brought together some 3,000 participants this week to discuss and compare experiences in different fields, including personalised medicine, how best to use natural resources and the impact of climate change on food security. Open innovation was presented as a way forward, and the role of companies in mitigation was deemed important but with ethics.
Lyon, France – Participants at a the Biovision international life sciences forum aimed at encouraging collaboration and integrating innovation shared experiences and discussed a number of topics including intellectual property strategy, technology transfer and the way forward for sustainable innovation.
A clause unfairly protecting a rum company’s US market by denying trademark rights quietly stuck into a US Congress appropriations bill in the deep of night in the late 1990s continues to haunt the halls of the World Trade Organization – but that does not seem to trouble US trade authorities. And this is not the only intellectual property-related case being met with US indifference, an irony for possibly the biggest proponent of IP rights in the world.
Tanzania is on the road to becoming a member of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), but Tanzanian civil society and farmers' organisations have warned about possible detrimental effects on small-holder farmers and have asked government to halt the ratification process until all stakeholders have been consulted.
New York - A conference here this week aimed at corporate counsel for intellectual property addressed a range of issues of interest to that audience.
Five United Nations agencies are joining efforts to tackle the rising issue of private standards which they say are affecting developing countries' exports by creating market entry hurdles for those countries. A new forum will be launched this week, and will establish its priority issues.
A civil society coalition fighting patents on conventional plants in Europe has published a briefing paper alleging that the European Patent Office is giving a "green light" to patents on plants and animals, disregarding the position of the European Parliament.
A report released yesterday by the non-profit ETC Group claims that six companies are seeking to control current priorities and the future direction of agricultural research. According to the report, giant seed companies are launching initiatives to preserve their IP rights and deflate antitrust concerns.