Category Innovation/ R&D

US Corporate IP Counsel Hear Latest Updates On Patent System

NEW YORK - “This is a very, very exciting time be in patent law,” Drew Hirshfeld, deputy commissioner for patent examination policy at the US Patent and Trademark Office, told a group of intellectual property lawyers last week.

In his keynote address to the 19-20 March Corporate IP Counsel meeting in Manhattan, Hirshfeld and a range of private sector speakers laid out a picture of a highly dynamic field, with legal and business opportunities and challenges changing every day.

New Document On Technical Assistance, But WIPO Design Treaty Still In Trouble

World Intellectual Property Organization delegates are trying to find a way out of a dividing line on how to address technical assistance in a potential new treaty on industrial designs. A new non-paper by the chair of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical indications (SCT) was released this morning. At stake is the committee's recommendation on the convening of a high level meeting to agree on the treaty.

European Patent Office Staff Calls Strike; President Battistelli Reacts

European Patent Office (EPO) employees on 13 March approved seven office-wide strike days, starting on 21 March. The move follows an increasingly tense stand-off between the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) and President Benoît Battistelli over, as a union document put it, timely access to justice, freedom of speech and freedom of association. The deteriorating relationship between employees and office officials prompted one French lawmaker to ask government ministers to rethink their country's support for Battistelli's reappointment. If unresolved, the labour issues could end up subjecting the EPO to closer scrutiny as it prepares to administer the EU unitary patent, one source close to the situation said.

Interview With Hans Hogerzeil: Recognising Good Practices Of Pharma

The issue of medicines access for low-income people in developing countries has been of major concern to global health policymakers for years. A key issue is the inability of northern pharmaceutical producers to develop and distribute affordable medicines and recover their research and development costs.

As part of the effort to address this, a non-governmental group was formed in coordination with industry and other stakeholders to develop an index to rate companies’ efforts to ameliorate the situation.

Julia Fraser for Intellectual Property Watch recently sat down with Hans Hogerzeil, a former senior World Health Organization official and a top strategist for the Access to Medicine Index, to discuss the index’s impact, independence and the future.

How To Safeguard Trade Secrets: Think ROI

Amid intensifying competition in the global economy, companies rely more heavily than ever on the advantages of trade secrets. This critical proprietary information includes, for example, market research, product plans, unique formulas and manufacturing methods, computer code and customer data - knowledge that companies build through years of hard work, experience and investment, writes Pamela Passman.