Original news and analysis on international IP policy
A conference at the World Intellectual Property Organization exploring and clarifying the connection between its work and several major public policy issues ended Tuesday with a look at public health and food security.
A conference aimed at sketching out ideas for the World Intellectual Property Organization’s involvement in issues of global public policy kicked off Monday with explorations on the link intellectual property and environmental technology and a separate event devoted to access to reading material for the visually impaired.
Leaders of the seven biggest economies and Russia (G8) at their annual summit this week in L'Aquila, Italy have made very cautious commitments with regard to the top issue, climate change, but views on intellectual property rights enforcement began to become clear on the second day. The summit so far has addressed issues related to trade, development, terrorism, and also innovation and IP.
Statements in the leaders' Wednesday declaration with regard to intellectual property called for a firm push for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which is unchanged from the past. But the G8 IP Expert Group (IPEG) on Thursday published the results of its discussion in which they went into more detail on some issues.
Innovation and technology will be key to emergence from the global economic crisis, according to speakers at a recent United Nations conference on innovation-based competitiveness. However, innovation should be collaborative and involve resources inside and outside companies and institutions.
Indigenous people and governments like the United States' may be able to help each other, especially when it comes to protecting traditional knowledge while also using it combat global crises like climate change, says Terry Williams of the Tulalip Tribes. But additional protection for traditional knowledge is needed.
Stringent intellectual property rules could hamper the spread of technology needed to fight climate change, an advisor to European Union policy-makers has warned.
LAUSANNE – « Rien ne vaut une bonne crise », si l’on en croit la sagesse populaire. Voilà une formule que les décideurs pourraient reprendre pour inciter le monde à adopter une économie plus verte et davantage fondée sur la connaissance. Telle est la conclusion à laquelle a abouti un groupe de discussion à l’École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EFPL) le 18 juin. La crise financière actuelle et l’éveil des consciences vis-à-vis de la crise écologique sont l’opportunité unique pour l’innovation, notamment l’innovation verte, de prendre les devants de l’économie du futur.
Members of a global treaty on plant genetic resources this month announced 11 new projects on biodiversity conservation in research institutions, and financed by a benefit-sharing fund whose sustainability is still in doubt. The group separately acted to better protect farmers’ rights at the national level.
LAUSANNE - One should not waste a good crisis, goes the common wisdom - a piece of advice policymakers might use to spur the world closer to a green, knowledge-based economy, said a panel at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Wednesday. The current financial crisis and an awakening recognition of the ecological crisis have presented a unique opportunity for innovation - and particularly green innovation - to take a lead role in driving future economies.
With less than a year to complete a new global plan to combat climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is under pressure to be able to move to a decision at the end of the year. But it is in the longer-term action plans that intellectual property issues are featuring most prominently, as parties to the UNFCCC aim to satisfy the need for growth in poor countries, and to mitigate effects of growth on the environment - a move that will require effective technology transfer.
As members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) prepare to meet for their annual ministerial meeting in Paris next week, the organisation has issued a report calling for a strategic, innovation-driven response to the economic crisis.
World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy continues to be engaged on intellectual property issues as WTO members begin to revive broader trade negotiations. This week Lamy hosted the heads of the World Intellectual Property Organization and World Health Organization together, and then chaired a consultation with ambassadors on proposals to amend WTO rules on intellectual property and trade.