Original news and analysis on international IP policy
KAMPALA, UGANDA - The pharmaceutical industry in the East African Community is approaching a higher level of production quality and manufacturing practices. To benefit the industry and increase access to medicines, stakeholders are working towards a united regulatory policy framework aimed at harmonising industrial, health and regulatory policies.
The smartphone is one of the most ubiquitous inventions in contemporary life. Ask anyone from teenagers to senior citizens – in industrialized countries, as well as emerging markets – about the wireless ways of their life, and they will tell you this. But what is the economic impact of mobile? That is not as obvious, writes Antonio Varas.
US President Obama told world leaders at the United Nations today that a nation that tries to repress its people is doomed to failure, and that the new measure of the strength of nations is the success of its people, including their knowledge and creativity. Access to information cannot be defeated due to technology and social media, and the desire of people to choose how they are governed, he said.
The trade negotiation between Europe and the United States relating to a wide range of trade and investment policies could lead to greater job creation and access to innovative medicines, according to senior European and American pharmaceutical business leaders and academics.
The alarming statistic that women hold less than 25 percent of science and technology jobs in the United States, despite making up nearly half of the workforce, brings home the extent to which women are underrepresented in this domain, says US Patent and Trademark Office Director Michelle Lee.
The Munich Oktoberfest, the world-famous beer festival, is a display for a range of inventions, according to the Munich-based European Patent Office. A search in the patent database of the office revealed there are more than 2,000 European patents in every beer tent.
BERN – Everybody knows how annoying it is to run out of battery power for mobile devices. In the same way, storing energy is a continuing issue for renewable energy due to its non-continuous nature. A number of innovations presented at this week’s Swiss Energy and Climate Summit in Bern sought to address that problem.
The yearly event invites Swiss and international speakers to put forward the latest in technology. And according to some participants from start-ups, intellectual property is key, but their IP strategy relies more and more on both patents and trade secrets.
The World Intellectual Property Organization exists to protect and promote intellectual property rights, including copyright. As a large international organisation, it is also a producer of a great amount of data and information that users around the world want to access.
WARSAW — The Polish Parliament has drafted an amended industrial property law which is expected to facilitate the procedure for registering trademarks and reduce related costs, as well as introduce a number of other modifications to the existing regulations.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced that 27 African eco-enterprises were the winners of a contest based on business models bringing social and environmental benefits to local communities. Affordable light and electricity, reusable, fireproof bricks made from waste plastic, a mobile phone application used by health professionals for eye care, and the empowerment of waste pickers, are some of the examples of the winning initiatives.
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is moving into new disease areas and has moved away from one, it announced this week.
Many developing countries lack enough human resources with the necessary skills to access patent information. Although patent documents are often unintelligible, strengthening the ability to search them in databases could help reduce information asymmetries in developing countries, Luis Gil Abinader writes.