Original news and analysis on international IP policy
This week, the World Intellectual Property Organization annual General Assemblies will set the priorities and direction for the organisation for the year to come. The Assemblies also have before it approval of WIPO's budget for the next biennium 2016/2017.
Free trade agreements should include incentives for generic and biosimilar medicines, speakers said at a panel during the World Trade Organization Public Forum last week.
KAMPALA, UGANDA - The pharmaceutical industry in the East African Community is approaching a higher level of production quality and manufacturing practices. To benefit the industry and increase access to medicines, stakeholders are working towards a united regulatory policy framework aimed at harmonising industrial, health and regulatory policies.
The annual World Trade Organization Public Forum opened today with a plenary session on making trade work more inclusively. The Doha Round, agriculture, and environmental technologies were part of the conversation.
A conference involving European governments and industry on how to comply with the new European Union rules on access and benefit sharing, organised by the International Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by the agriculture industry, is taking place this week in Paris. Seemingly contrary to the subject of access and sharing, the event is closed to the public and media.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to be adopted this week at UN Headquarters, could fall short of its health targets unless the governments embark on “U-turn” changes to rectify the dysfunctions in global governance that undermine health, writes Daniele Dionisio.
NEW YORK – As some of the most powerful people on earth prepare to gather here later this week at the United Nations to discuss the biggest problems and opportunities facing humankind for the next 15 years, mention of a key issue underlying many themes – intellectual property – is hard to find. Also hard to find is reference to the UN agency responsible for the issue, the World Intellectual Property Organization.
A new paper by a Norwegian researcher finds that recent legislation efforts on plant variety protection in Africa go beyond the requirements of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).
Members of a World Intellectual Property Organization committee last week reached some tough agreements on issues relating to the next two years’ program and budget, but had to pass on unfinished work to the full WIPO membership, which will meet in two weeks.
After four years of talks, committee members at the World Intellectual Property Organization have agreed on a definition for what constitutes an expenditure on development in the UN agency.
Several leading public health groups have sent a letter to United States Trade Representative and US Patent and Trademark Office director asking for more transparency on the US position on a request by least-developed countries to indefinitely extend their World Trade Organization intellectual property waiver on pharmaceutical products.
In a communication today, the European Commission said it agrees to support a least developed country request at the World Trade Organization to prolong indefinitely a current exemption on the enforcement of IP on pharmaceutical products. Now the decision moves to the EU member states.