Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Years-old efforts by members of the World Health Organization to come up with viable ways to boost research and development of medical products for diseases primarily affecting poor populations are coming to head, with a key meeting in December. That meeting of experts will be an opportunity to narrow down proposals being developed by the six WHO regional offices.
It was clear at today’s opening of a World Intellectual Property Organization committee on industrial designs that developing countries were standing firm on their request to include mandatory technical assistance and capacity building in a potential procedural treaty aimed at facilitating international registration of this form of intellectual property right.
A collective civil society group has raised concerns about a draft Africa Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) plant variety protection law, which is based on the 1991 version of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). The draft law, which may come up for adoption in November, would criminalise farmers' rights and undermine the seed systems in Africa, they said.
The international organisation providing and promoting intellectual property protection for new plant varieties held the annual meeting of its governing body last week. New member requests were examined while civil society warned against a draft African legal framework on plant variety protection that they said could impact the dominant subsistence farming systems in some African states.
This week the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is holding the annual meeting of its governing body, and preparatory meetings leading up to it. A seminar also is being held on essentially derived varieties. Meanwhile, civil society is asking that all the meeting documents be held public while demonstrating that restricted documents can be obtained through national freedom of information rights.
Infojustice.org reports: Last week, the report Brazilian Patent Reform: Innovation Towards Competitiveness was launched at an event at the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies.
The World Trade Organization intellectual property committee last week agreed on a draft decision on disputes that are not in direct violation of WTO IP rules but where one country’s measures negatively affect another country’s expected benefits. Plain packaging for tobacco products was also discussed as Ireland is preparing to introduce such a measure meant to discourage tobacco use, and some countries presented their views on the importance of IP rights in sports.
Climate change calls for new technologies to face its consequences, governments agree. But research and development efforts are mainly conducted by the private sector in developed countries and are patent-protected, which is doing little to diffuse the technologies in developing countries, said a lecturer in Geneva this week.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) last week held a mandated seminar on the right of everyone to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications. In some cases, intellectual property rights may not be helping, according to speakers.
The UN International Telecommunication Union today released global statistics on information and communications technology, showing great advances in speed, reach and mobile connectivity, but with the reality that billions of humans are still not connected to the internet.
A panel of industry representatives presented their views at the World Trade Organization on the diffusion of innovation, calling intellectual property rights key to the process. Meanwhile, another panel looked at innovation as a growth strategy for the global South.
In recent years, the Caribbean has been placed under a considerable amount of pressure to comply with the international regimen on intellectual property rights writes Abiola Inniss.