Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The United States Supreme Court came to a decision yesterday on the case of Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., striking down Myriad’s patent on isolating human genes from the bloodstream.
Starting next week, Marrakesh, Morocco, will be the site of a two-week high level conference expected to yield a treaty facilitating the international access to books for blind and visually impaired people. Stakes are high, not only for the beneficiaries, but also for the industry worried that the copyright system might be endangered by the new treaty, introducing limitations to copyright.
To what extent can global intellectual property rules address in an effective manner the needs of the most vulnerable members of society? This is the key question with which member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) are faced as they prepare to meet next week for a diplomatic conference, in Marrakesh, that should result in the adoption of a treaty to facilitate access to copyrighted works by visually impaired persons and persons with print disabilities.
The United Nations Human Rights Council today adopted a resolution urging governments to encourage technology development and transfer and to apply intellectual property rights measures in ways that avoid creating barriers to trade in “affordable, safe, efficacious and quality medicines.” The resolution includes references to IP flexibilities in international trade law and to “delinkage” of R&D costs with the price of health products.
World Trade Organization members this week agreed to give least-developed countries an extra eight years to implement international intellectual property protection rules. The decision received a broad support among countries, with some voicing reservations about the negotiation process.
Revelations about boundless spying by the National Security Agency and other US agencies on the electronic communications of US and non-US citizens are rippling international politics and will be a surprise topic at the upcoming Group of 8 summit in Dublin. But the more savvy technical community has been slow to react. There is some speculation about the technical solutions used and even less call for action. For many, quite obviously, the state surveillance does come as a surprise at least because of its scope.
World Trade Organization members today reached a draft decision on a request put forward by least-developed countries to extend the period during which they do not have to comply with international rules of intellectual property rights protection, according to sources. Under the terms of the hard-fought decision, LDCs can benefit from an extension of eight more years.
Secrecy in trade negotiations and privileged access for business and trade associations does not violate EU law, according to a judgment handed in by the Court of the European Union in Luxembourg today.
Thirteen years after publication of the landmark report, “Tobacco Company Strategies to Undermine Tobacco Control Activities at the World Health Organization,” little has changed and industry manipulations continue, one of the lead authors has said.
Lower-income countries receive much less attention in terms of clinical trial research, according to a study published in this month’s World Health Organization (WHO) Bulletin. The study also underscored the value and importance the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) provides as a resource for evaluating the distribution of clinical trials around the world, and for providing information for future policy on health R&D.
The European Court of Justice in a decision dated 30 May ordered Sweden to pay a lump sum of €3 million euros for its delay in transposing the controversial 2006 EU data retention directive into national law in time.
The US film industry and advocates for the blind joined forces today to urge World Intellectual Property Organization negotiators to keep treaty talks focussed on the core issue of making more books available to the blind and visually impaired. The joint statement appeared to be aimed at reining in stakeholders on both sides of the international debate.