Original news and analysis on international IP policy
A United States health department advisory group this month produced a new draft report on gene patenting and licensing with recommendations suggesting that excessive patenting can limit patients’ access to gene testing and might not foster genetic research. The recommendations were supported by a variety of health professionals but put the biotechnology industry on edge.
Protection of traditional knowledge under intellectual property rights may have a time limit, though determining duration of protection measures will be more difficult than it is with Western scientific innovation, World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Francis Gurry said yesterday.
As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food prepares to present his report today at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, a global appeal is being filed by farmers and environmental organisations against patents on plants and animals derived from conventional breeding.
BANGKOK - Normal negotiation strategy is unlikely to result in an impact on climate change, since the most important stakeholders in fighting it - not yet born - have no seat at the negotiating tables, said a panel last week in Bangkok. An ethical approach is a better way to achieve results, speakers said, and an ethical take on intellectual property rights and alternative forms of innovation may have a place in new climate-friendly economic models.
BANGKOK – Humanity may be facing the single greatest threat to its future in history, yet significant political disagreements still stand in the way of common action needed to combat what will be a common crisis. One potential blocking point appears to be whether compulsory licensing may be encouraged for poor countries needing climate technologies.
The economic, climate and food crises were on the lips of speakers at the 2009 World Trade Organization Public Forum last week. Suggestions for better global governance were sought from stakeholders who took the podium in different sessions, and trade in agriculture was a focal point of the event.
BANGKOK – Delegates gathered in Thailand to try and pull together a slow-moving UN negotiation on a plan to fight climate change have yet to bridge fundamental conceptual differences on key issues, including intellectual property. The vast majority of consensus found so far at the two-week informal gathering has been textual rather than political, said several participants.
The new work plan for negotiations for the coming months at the World Trade Organization includes intellectual property issues that some members say are critical to any outcome in the current round of trade negotiations.
The United States Congress and biotechnology industry are currently focused on healthcare reform, but biotech is also looking to the future at energy reform, patent reform and other intellectual property-related legislative priorities still on its agenda.
After a year of stalled deliberations on the issue of protecting traditional knowledge, genetic resources, and traditional cultural expressions, delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assemblies on Thursday found a compromise text that gives the committee its strongest mandate yet.
Failure to resolve the deadlock over traditional knowledge at the World Intellectual Property Organization would call into question the organisation’s role, some member states said this week, as the chair of the General Assemblies tabled a text in an attempt to bridge major gaps that still remain. Meanwhile, the organisation adopted a commitment to approve the availability of documents in all its languages.
世界知识产权组织（World Intellectual Property Organization）总干事今天在该联合国机构的年度大会开幕式上说，如果世界知识产权组织要保持决策上的影响力，它就必须能够在无论是最新的技术开发还是传统知识体系领域为创新制定标准。