Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Marrakesh, Morocco - Negotiators were still hard at work here at press time trying to reach the deadline of tomorrow set by the president of the diplomatic conference, to get agreed language to a drafting committee tasked with delivering a treaty text. The treaty is intended to confer on visually impaired people a wider access to books by providing exceptions to copyrighted works in special format.
Marrakesh, Morocco - A breakthrough was reached over the weekend in the World Intellectual Property Organization negotiations to provide more access to visually impaired people, according to participating sources. Agreement appears to have been struck on the controversial issue of restrictions to the exceptions to copyright that the treaty is proposing to establish.
Pop star Stevie Wonder was a surprise guest this morning at the plenary session of the World Intellectual Property Organization diplomatic conference in Marrakesh concocting a treaty to facilitate access for blind people to books. The president of the diplomatic conference also exhorted delegates to bridge gaps and reach consensus.
This week's World Intellectual Property Organization Marrakesh Diplomatic Conference, anticipated to deliver an international treaty allowing visually impaired people wider access to books, is also an arena where different stakeholders hope to influence the debate. Civil society calls for a practical treaty that really works on the ground, while industry insists that safeguards to protect the integrity of the international copyright laws be included in the treaty.
Displays of good intentions peppered the two first days of World Intellectual Property Organization negotiations on treaty facilitating access to books for visually impaired people. However, countries pleading for flexibility reaffirmed their previous positions. Developed countries seeking to preserve the international copyright system, and developing countries assuring that the treaty is not jeopardising this system.
World Intellectual Property Organization delegates this week have launched into negotiations expected to yield the first treaty creating exceptions and limitations to copyright for the benefit of visually impaired people. Many delegations have said much work remained to be done in the next ten days to breach differences. A new text was released this evening on commercial availability.
An article in the newly launched Journal of Health Diplomacy about the stalled progress at the World Health Organization for a medical research and development (R&D) convention discusses systemic failures in global health policy.
The World Intellectual Property Organization diplomatic conference expected to yield a treaty creating exceptions and limitations to copyright for the benefit of visually impaired people opened today in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Assurances of good faith and willingness to find solutions for remaining issues were given by delegates, while WIPO Director General Francis Gurry called for unity, King Mohammed VI talked about moral obligation in a royal message, and visually impaired people called for negotiators to create history. All nonetheless agreed on the importance of the copyright system.
Last Thursday, the United States Supreme Court overturned more than 30 years of precedents and ruled that isolated genes cannot be patented. They are products of nature and thus not patent-eligible subject matter, the court unanimously held in Assoc. for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. This ruling puts the US at odds with most other nations, which allow genes to be patented. But because other major nations grant narrower gene patents, the net effect of Myriad will be to shift the US position on gene patents closer to that of other nations.
Prices of cancer drugs must be lowered to be affordable for patients and to maintain sound long-term healthcare policies, according to a group of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) experts in a recent Blood journal editorial.
European Commission Vice-President responsible for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, today told a US business group that revelations about the United States government's mass surveillance programmes would hurt US businesses, but create opportunities for European business. She also said the US should have been more transparent with the European Union and allow US companies to be more transparent, and risks undermining trust in digital services.
Recent news about the United States National Security Agency (NSA)'s secret programmes to collect the records of domestic telephone calls in the US and international internet activity has dominated headlines. The revelation has spurred countless conversations about the ability of government agencies and companies to monitor private communications of individuals.