Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The United States Congress and biotechnology industry are currently focused on healthcare reform, but biotech is also looking to the future at energy reform, patent reform and other intellectual property-related legislative priorities still on its agenda.
BANGKOK – Protection of intellectual property should not be a barrier in transferring technology needed by developing countries in helping them cope with the effects of climate change as most of the technology is currently publicly available, a key negotiator of the issue has said.
BANGKOK – Government officials and private stakeholders were urged Monday to strike differences from the 280 pages of negotiating text in preparing a draft that could become a global agreement on climate change in December 2009.
Participants at a recent United Nations conference on the role of new plant varieties and seeds in agriculture agreed that access to genetic resources and the protection of intellectual property rights are essential to sustain plant breeding. But key opponents not invited to the meeting claim that plant breeding will endanger biodiversity, sustainability and ultimately food security.
COPENHAGEN - Technology transfer is bound to be part of a possible new international climate deal at the high-level meeting in Copenhagen in December, according to officials. Meanwhile, international economists have concluded that such transfers constitute a win-win situation for developed and developing countries when it comes to combating climate change.
Intellectual Property Watch asked Kanayo Nwanze of the International Fund for Agricultural Development to explain how to best create incentives for technology development aimed at helping smallholding farmers, how to achieve agricultural growth without damaging the environment, and how to use intellectual property to forward those goals.
Senior officials from well over 100 nations at a five-day United Nations conference on Thursday issued a succinct declaration committing them to establish a global framework on the delivery of products and services related to climate change. But earlier negotiating versions of the declaration from the week obtained by Intellectual Property Watch show substantive disagreement and the removal of pages of draft text.
Scientists and bureaucrats meeting this week on climate change and weather data are struggling to move global discussion past general declarations of recognition and commitment to address environmental change. One bump under the rug at the United Nations conference is rights over environmental technologies, and a new UN report released Tuesday calls for investment and a focus on flexibilities in and possible changes to intellectual property rights rules to help developing countries access information and technologies.
With 15 scheduled negotiating days left before a meeting in Copenhagen meant to set the global sustainability agenda for the next several years, the head of the United Nations agency tasked with coordinating the global effort to fight climate change has issued an urgent call for more speed toward convergence on all parts of the upcoming climate change agreement, especially on IP-related text - lest the entire thing fall through.
The influential United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) ended its 2009 substantive session on 31 July, after a month-long coordinating body meeting in Geneva which yielded resolutions on several topics such as public health, science and technology, human rights, environment and sustainable development issues.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday appeared to look favourably upon David Kappos, the Obama administration nominee for undersecretary of Commerce and director of the US Patent and Trademark Office. But in the process, Kappos showed possible weaknesses in separating himself from his job at IBM and the need for international diplomacy on IP enforcement.
Information and communications technology (ICT) industries have been hard hit by the economic crisis but vary in the degree to which they have been able to sustain spending on research and development, according to a new report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Now there are signs the worst may be over for the sector if it can benefit from innovation to address social challenges.