Original news and analysis on international IP policy
“Governments have few sources of leverage over increasingly globalised food systems - but public procurement is one of them,” the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to adequate food states in a new report. The right to food should be included in public food purchasing according to five principles in order to make food systems fairer and more sustainable, he said.
The World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) meets next week with a crowded agenda. There will be reports on development-related projects and core issues such as an independent review of WIPO's implementation of its Development Agenda recommendations.
The Geneva IP delegates list is updated! As a special feature for our subscribers, Intellectual Property Watch has assembled a new list of many of the leading government delegates working on intellectual property issues in Geneva.
BASEL -- Students from around the world are gathering momentum to challenge their universities’ licensing policies and research and development systems. That was one of the messages emerging from the annual meeting of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) Europe.
The World Intellectual Property Organization recently published a paper entitled, “Documenting Traditional Medical Knowledge.” Withthe growing use of traditional and alternative medicines in developed countries, their importance in developing countries' health systems and the multi-billion dollar potential of benefits for companies, “documenting and protecting these medicines is becoming a greater priority,” the document states.
As the future United Nations development goals are being debated and decided, two important reports make the case for inclusion of a discussion on global governance and its impact on health.
Some five minutes is all it took this morning for the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly to re-elect Francis Gurry at the head of WIPO for the next six years. All delegations taking the floor congratulated the director general and underlined the achievements under his current mandate. However, the matter of allegations by one of the WIPO deputy directors general is being investigated.
The European Union Council of Ministers on 14 April adopted a decision approving the ratification of a protocol meant to facilitate access to genetic resources and to provide the fair sharing of commercial benefits with provider countries. The target date for ratification is July 2014, according to the EU.
Last week, the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee ended without agreement on the conclusions of the meeting or its future work, to the dismay of librarians and archivists associations. During the week, numerous representatives of these communities gave vigorous accounts of why a treaty is vital to grant them exceptions to copyright.
Intellectual property issues may not be at the top of the post-Bali negotiations at the World Trade Organization, but there are many IP-related issues going on at the WTO. Below is an overview of some current and possible IP-related issues at the WTO.