Original news and analysis on international IP policy
MUNICH -- The agreement of the heads of states of the United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany to reduce global warning to less than two degrees made the biggest headlines of the G7 Summit on Elmau Castle, Germany, in the Bavarian Alps. Also agreed were commitments on trade and on public health, including research and development for neglected diseases.
The mining industry in Chile offers an interesting case study on the role of intellectual property in the innovation process, according to a discussion at a recent event held at the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The World Trade Organization committee on intellectual property and trade this week will discuss a range of issues including a request by least-developed countries to extend the time before they are required to enforce rules on IP and pharmaceuticals. Other issues include a discussion of IP and innovation, and a moratorium on complaints about government actions that do not violate WTO rules but may harm trade.
MUNICH -- Just days before leaders of the Group of 7 (G7) industrialised countries gather in the well-guarded Bavarian Castle Elmau, a broad coalition of organisations invited free trade critics to an International Summit for Alternatives in Munich. Speaking there, Jean Ziegler, well-known former UN rapporteur for the right to food, shrugged off the possible effects of the G7 Summit.
Recent negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization to create a new Act for the protection of geographical indications were intensive, with the outcome considered a landmark breakthrough by negotiators and a blow to the UN agency’s legitimacy by others. But a search on global coverage of and reactions to the new agreement raises the question of whether it has attracted broader attention.
Intellectual property rights are among the issues given detailed analysis in the latest trade policy review of India by the World Trade Organization under review this week. Turns out, India has been quite busy on IP rights over the past few years.
This year’s United Nations review of implementation of the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is picking up pace. Meanwhile, intensive efforts continue to meet a September target for the handover from the United States of key underlying functions of the internet.
Over 140 non-governmental organisations, most of them local from developing countries, have co-signed a letter to World Trade Organization members to ask they agree to a request by least-developed countries to extend a waiver on their obligation to enforce intellectual property rights on pharmaceutical products.
Although most people in the world live within reach of a mobile internet signal, a considerable amount of mobile users in developing countries are not using the opportunity to go online. One of the factors, according to a panel today, is the lack of locally relevant content.
The 68th World Health Assembly (WHA), which took place from 18-26 May, was characterised as one of the most successful annual assemblies ever by Margaret Chan, World Health Organization director general. From the standpoint of intellectual property, access and innovation, this may be debatable. Below is a guide to the main accomplishments highlighted by Intellectual Property Watch.
These include: action plans to fight antibiotic resistance and to boost vaccinations, extension of the Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (GSPA), incremental progress on alternative research and development for neglected diseases, status of the pandemic influenza preparedness framework, response to emergencies like Ebola, and WHO’s relationship with lobbyists and donors.
The problem of drug prices eating up national health budgets has been coming up at the annual World Health Assembly. Last week, a panel of experts discussed the merits of lowering those prices by delinking research and development costs from pricing.
World Health Organization members in committee this week took note of a report by the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination (CEWG), which was set up to find ways to fund research on diseases afflicting poor populations which have little market incentive for the private sector. The report included a proposal for a voluntary pooled fund that would focus on the development of effective and affordable health technologies for such neglected diseases.