Original news and analysis on international IP policy
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.
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), an enigma organisation to some, has published a list of answers to frequently asked questions on its website.
The latest United Nations report on climate change offers advice for international and national intellectual property policies relating to climate change mitigation technology. Although strong IP rights may foster green technology development and transfer in developed countries, there is a lack of evidence to support IP strengthening in developing countries, it concludes.
The African Regional Intellectual Property Office last week obtained a positive decision at the international level on its draft law to protect new varieties of plants. Amid protest from civil society, the regional office now has to adopt the draft law and has said it would convene a diplomatic conference (high-level negotiation) in 2014 in order to do so.
Several committees of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) will meet this week. One of them is called to assess a draft legal framework on plant variety protection from the African Regional Intellectual Property Office (ARIPO). The draft legislation has drawn ire from civil society who charge that it is detrimental to small farmers and who argue that ARIPO does not have legitimacy to become a UPOV member.
A much-discussed new United Nations report on climate change addresses intellectual property issues and the role of innovation in developing technology and disseminate knowledge for local adaption to climate change.
In a final report before the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) today, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food called for a redesigned world food system to ensure the human right to adequate food and freedom from hunger. This includes some changes to the way intellectual property rights apply to food and agriculture.
Traditional medical knowledge would be best protected through liability rules instead of patents, according to a book exploring the applicability of intellectual property rights to traditional medical knowledge protection, and in particular if IP rights are suitable to promote the goals of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
Intellectual property has a strong effect on the practice of science, leading to a shift in research attention for the benefit of the rich, while impeding access to essential goods for the disadvantaged, according to a recent book.
The intersection of biotechnology and intellectual property continues to be a hot topic across the globe. From the patenting of certain plant varieties to human genes, to biodiversity and food security, to genetic resources, countries from developing to developed are attempting to navigate often blurred lines in terms of what can and cannot be patented, what should - and shouldn’t - be patented, and protecting innovators from farmers to plant breeders to drug manufacturers.
Technology transfer for green technologies, and the compliance with international trade rules of plain packaging for tobacco products will once again be on the agenda of the World Trade Organization committee on intellectual property next week. A new agenda item on university technology partnerships is also expected to be discussed.
Despite spending a week in mostly closed, informal discussions, the World Intellectual Property Organization committee working on the protection of genetic resources, got little closer to breaching the opposing viewpoints. Members managed to produce a draft text - with signs of steps toward a middle ground - that they say can serve as a basis for further discussion on the development of an international instrument preventing wrongful patents.