Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Leaps forward in technology can bring with them dramatic social changes; in particular the expansion of digital and social media has both democratised the power to record information and to be heard, but it has also simultaneously made it easier than ever before for public institutions to intrude upon private lives.
A treaty on copyright exceptions for visually impaired readers, open educational materials, use of the internet without surveillance, and early human rights movements around access to electricity were among issues debated at a recent academic conference on access to knowledge.
In its 2010 digital music report, the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said that despite the availability of 400 legitimate online music offerings worldwide and significantly higher 2009 revenues, the music sector remains hard-hit by peer-to-peer and emerging forms of copyright infringement.
In a mad-dash 34-hour marathon, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry professionals met on 1-2 February in Geneva in what was intended to be a hearth of partnering opportunities. About 600 participants debated future trends and current challenges along with open innovation, global health and vaccines.
Ensuring public access to knowledge while supporting intellectual property rights cuts across broad areas such as internet availability, public health, education and culture, climate change, and basic technical standards. And while the non-profit movement that has worked to encourage access is facing serious challenges this year, they are set to fight it out in the various fora related to essential drugs, books and academic journals, and software again in 2010.
CAIRO - The launch this week on the new campus of American University in Cairo of a new centre and a new book on access to knowledge in Egypt offered a view on the complexities of the issues and the challenges developing countries face to ensure global intellectual property rights are incorporated into their legal systems in the most locally productive ways possible.
A waiver to World Trade Organization rules intended to aid people in poor countries in gaining access to medicines has remained essentially unused in the over six-and-a-half years since it was put in place. On Friday, member states of the WTO will in an informal meeting discuss this situation and see what, if anything, needs be done.
A report by a United States health department advisory group issued last week presents recommendations aimed at preventing patents on genes and licensing practices in the US from negatively impacting patient access to genetic tests that would allow them to establish their genetic dispositions to declare potential illnesses.
Un accord prévoyant l’échange d’informations sur les virus et le partage des avantages liés à la gestion des droits de propriété intellectuelle qui en découlent devrait être conclu dans le cadre d’une nouvelle négociation intergouvernementale organisée sous les auspices de la directrice générale de l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé.
يُؤمل أن تُوضع اللمسات الأخيرة على اتفاق بشأن المواد المتعلقة بتبادل الفيروسات والفوائد وإدارة حقوق الملكية الفكرية المرتبطة بها من خلال دورة من المفاوضات الحكومية الدولية التي تيسّرها المديرة العامة لمنظمة الصحة العالمية.
通过世界卫生组织干事长的协调而进行的一个新的政府间谈判，将有望达成一项有关共享病毒材料及其收益与管理相关知识产权的协议。
Las culturas de los pueblos indígenas a menudo no se han tenido en cuenta en la elaboración de las normas mundiales de propiedad intelectual, según se afirma en un nuevo informe de las Naciones Unidas.