Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The United States Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva this week offered a frank assessment of the UN system of dealing with pandemic diseases, and defended the need for governments to negotiate in secret to work out remaining differences.
The United Nations climate change conference closed at dawn last Saturday, with a make-do package of decisions advantageously labelled the “Cancun Agreements”. Intellectual property rights have all but disappeared from the texts as Bolivia stood alone in disagreement and was shush-gavelled.
In what may be the first legal reference to newly adopted international rules on sharing the benefits of and access to genetic resources, non-governmental groups have sent letters to top European health officials reminding them of these obligations in the context of influenza viruses and access to vaccines - a topic under debate this week at the World Health Organization.
Delegates negotiating early stages of a treaty on traditional cultural expressions this week got down to details of what to protect, from whom and how in late-night drafting sessions at the World Intellectual Property Organization, and found a work plan for the immediate future on genetic resources as well. Meanwhile, indigenous groups continued to raise concerns about the process.
The European Patent Office Enlarged Board of Appeal yesterday gave its decision on the so-called “broccoli” and “tomato” cases, and excluded “essentially biological processes for the production of plans (or animals)” from patentability.
In the Caribbean, issues of traditional knowledge in intellectual property are hardly considered to be of special significance to the majority of policymakers and, except for a few pockets of interest groups such as a group of Rastafarians in Jamaica, the average citizen is uninformed on the subject. The protection of the cultural heritage of the region through a normative system of law is exceedingly necessary for the survival of our unique brand of cultural expression, writes Abiola Inniss.
Delegates this week at the World Intellectual Property Organization are continuing text-based discussions on a legal instrument for traditional knowledge, genetic resources and traditional cultural expressions. This week’s meeting is expected to be a stage-setter for the coming year, considered a key one in the ongoing efforts to solve global biopiracy concerns.
The most recent outbreak of pandemic influenza was mild, but the World Health Organization is still working on a plan of what to do should another, more severe outbreak ever occur. States will come together this month in another attempt to finalise this plan.
Global talks to address climate change being held in Cancun hobbled along last week amid calls for flexibility among parties. Japan declared its opposition to an extension of the Kyoto Protocol setting binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, civil society worried about transparency in the negotiating process, as countries started negotiations on specific texts.
As the end of 2010 nears, bringing with it the end of the otherwise unremarkable international year of biodiversity, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is calling for countries to ratify the newly agreed protocol on biodiversity access and benefit sharing as soon as it opens for signature in February.