Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The membership of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization in its celebrated annual General Assembly have spent most of the last few days in informal small groups behind closed doors, trying to reach agreements on issues that seem simple but for them, go to the heart of the organisation’s functioning.
World Intellectual Property Organization members this evening reached a hard-won preliminary agreement on a path to a high-level negotiation of treaties or other instruments for the protection of traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources. The tentative deal, reached in informal meetings, creates an intensive work programme for the next year and a final decision in September 2014. The plan will have to go before the full WIPO membership in plenary as soon as Monday.
NEW YORK – The vast collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry, government and civil society is perhaps “one of the best-kept secrets of our industry,” the head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) said this week, stressing the need for even more cooperating heading into the post-2015 development agenda at the United Nations.
Progress on mainstreaming a development dimension into all World Intellectual Property Organization activities and its assessment by a dedicated committee has been called into question by developing countries concerned that the mandatory effort has slipped in importance.
This week, US Ambassador to the UN Betty King told Intellectual Property Watch that WIPO is still out of balance – against intellectual property rights holders.
Agenda items appeared to move swiftly in the first days of this week’s World Intellectual Property Organization annual assembly, but tricky issues are being left for later and actively discussed in informal consultations. Examples of ongoing discussions are the programme and budget discussion, governance of the organisation, and the definition of development expenditures under the budget.
In the context of a parallel event to the World Intellectual Property Organization annual General Assemblies, innovators from developed and developing countries shared their thoughts on how to foster a creative environment that encourages ground-breaking innovations.
A recent report by a United Nations agency calls for an urgent shift of paradigm in agricultural development.
The World Intellectual Property Organization annual General Assembly opened today with an unusual number of issues for delegates to solve, in particular those inherited from the committee in charge of approving the budget and the programmes of the organisation earlier in the month. Among pressing issues are WIPO external offices and decisions to be made on potential treaties such as on industrial designs, the protection of broadcasting organisations, and the protection of genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
Several negotiators and other stakeholders participating in last June’s successful negotiation of an international treaty to ease access to reading material for blind and visually impaired people recently gathered in Washington, DC to look back on the remarkable and at-times bitter talks. Months later, not all agree on certain historical details, such as the US position, but all agree it was a significant accomplishment.
At the end of a two-day conference in Switzerland, open knowledge experts emphasised the role of open data in strengthening science findings’ credibility, fostering medical research and enhancing sustainable development.
La Oficina Nacional de Propiedad Industrial (ONAPI) de la República Dominicana “está trabajando” en una base de datos que facilitaría el acceso a información sobre las solicitudes de patentes presentadas en el país. Actualmente, obtener esa información puede ser costoso y complicado.