Original news and analysis on international IP policy
With implementation of the World Health Organization strategy on intellectual property and innovation beginning in earnest, international experts this week debated how human rights could be infused into global health strategies - including the possibility of new international agreements on research and development - and whether WHO is up to the task.
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.
WASHINGTON – Le 9 juin, au cours d’une conférence, la ministre française de la Culture et de la Communication, Christine Albanel, a défini la loi Création et Internet comme étant « à la fois ambitieuse et réaliste ». Selon elle, ceux qui pensent qu’Internet est une zone de non-droit « se trompent d’époque ». À l’occasion de cette conférence, des hypothèses ont également été avancées quant à la législation américaine entourant la réforme des brevets, les droits d’interprétation et d’exécution, et d’autres questions.
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.
Nearly two billion people lack access to the medical care they need, and in the developing world those who do manage to have access are overwhelmingly paying out-of-pocket, often triggering a fall into poverty. The monopoly-making power of patents to drive the cost of medicines beyond affordability is a significant contributor to this disturbing trend, says a report of the United Nations rapporteur on the right to health presented at last week’s Human Rights Council.
Major public health funders have alighted upon an industry-favoured approach of guaranteeing certain prices to industry to make vaccines available to least-developed country markets.
WASHINGTON, DC - Copyright holders on Wednesday acknowledged they have done a poor job of countering the "anti-copyright" lobby and demonstrating the creative community's value to the world.
A commission under the United Nations charged with monitoring progress in improving science and technology in places where access is difficult and capacity to use that access scarce, concluded its recent annual meeting with draft resolutions on internet and society and on development and science. One notes that there is still much work to be done to bridge the ‘digital divide’ that creates disparities in access to information technology and knowledge in the world; the other calls on governments and UN institutions to find innovative ways to support innovative capacity.
Draft rules on intellectual property rights in publicly financed research are stirring significant debate in South Africa between those who say the rules may stifle innovation, breach WHO commitments and be unconstitutional, and others who say concerns are overblown and the measures are needed to boost the country's economy.