Original news and analysis on international IP policy
KAMPALA, UGANDA -- Member states of African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) have adopted a protocol for the protection of new varieties of plants. The measure is aimed at modernising African agricultural practices, but some say it comes at the expense of age-old traditional farming practices, such as saving and re-using seed.
A new report released today shows how mobile technology has fundamentally transformed internet access and use. The report gives forecasts and makes recommendations for policymakers going forward. Among the findings is the rapid rise in dependence on apps, which can raise security, privacy, competition, and cost concerns, as well as issues of availability of locally relevant content online.
As the broadcasting sector is growing in developing countries, concern over piracy of the signal of their broadcasts is rising, according to delegates from South Africa. Delegates attending last week’s World Intellectual Property Organisation copyright committee meeting sat down with Intellectual Property Watch and argued the importance of a potential WIPO treaty protecting broadcasting organisations’ rights.
In the quest to find solutions to protect traditional knowledge and genetic resources from misappropriation, some countries have resorted to private databases to be used by patent examiners. Indigenous peoples are wary of the process primarily because they are not sure their knowledge will remain safe in those databases. Speakers at a World Intellectual Property Organization this week discussed the pros and cons of such defensive protection.
The issue of genetic resources or traditional knowledge that are shared among different countries was discussed at a World Intellectual Property Organization seminar this week. Panellists presented national and regional efforts to protect such resources.
Keen on maintaining momentum in the discussions on the protection of traditional knowledge and genetic resources, while the normative agenda on the issue is suspended, the World Intellectual Property Organization is holding a seminar on the subject this week.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), part of US President Barack Obama’s promised pivot to Asia, has stirred up a hornet’s nest on the ethics of trying to hammer out a trade deal in secrecy. But it is not the only one. A proposed trade agreement in Asia, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), is facing the same hiccups and flak.
Under the new Inventor Assistance Program established jointly by the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Economic Forum, inventors and small businesses with limited financial means coming from a developing country will be able to seek pro bono legal assistance of patent attorneys to obtain patent protection.
The United Nations is leading a mandated review of the 2003-2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) this year, culminating in a high-level meeting in December. This week, UN member states discussed the roadmap to December in a “stock-taking” exercise.
The 2013 World Intellectual Property Organization treaty on access to published works for print-disabled readers may go into effect by early 2016. And the treaty has become part of a bigger process at the United Nations on the rights of persons with disabilities, speakers at UN headquarters in New York said this week.
World Trade Organization members this week could not decide on a request from least-developed countries to extend a waiver allowing them to forego the enforcement of intellectual property rights on pharmaceutical products until their economies are stronger. Discussions are expected to be conducted informally until the next meeting of the organisation’s council on IP rights in October.
We, the African civil society organisations participating in the Bonn Climate Change Conference, are gravely concerned about the progress of negotiations and wish to express our utmost disillusionment on the mistrust reigning the corridors of the new World Conference Centre here in Bonn.