Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Internet Governance Forum Dynamic Coalition on Trade and the Internet, a group formed in 2016, held its formal inaugural meeting today and adopted a resolution on transparency in trade negotiations, in particular on trade rules that affect the online and digital environment.
The International Trademark Association (INTA) will implement a new strategic plan for 2018 to 2021 starting with the new year. The plan focuses on promoting the value of trademarks and brands, reinforcing consumer trust, and embracing innovation and change.
After two decades of intellectual property regimes in trade agreements, one could have some second thoughts, according to a number of panellists at the Trade and Sustainable Development Symposium, organised by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and held alongside the 11th World Trade Organization Ministerial in Buenos Aires, Argentina this week.
A day after Greg Perry resigned as executive director of the Medicines Patent Pool, the pharmaceutical industry announced today that he will join the Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) as an assistant director general.
A new European Union ancillary copyright provision for news publishers will help them against news aggregators and platform providers, promised proponents and two panellists favouring the addition of the EU Copyright Reform at a workshop of the Justice Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament in Brussels today (7 December). But it’s a promise that cannot be kept according to a study commissioned by the Parliament and also presented during a feisty discussion at the workshop.
A delegation of heads of biotechnology companies visited Geneva this month to present the International Confederation of Biotechnology Trade Associations (ICBA). The ICBA was created in 2012, but is now looking to make its voice heard in Geneva and inform policy discussions, and is finding it is not easy to become an observer in some organisations. They also underlined the importance of intellectual property for the biotech sector, in particular to attract indispensable capital. The delegation sat down with Intellectual Property Watch’s Catherine Saez to talk about their Geneva visit.
The International Trademark Association (INTA) today issued a position paper calling for "minimal disruption" and strong intellectual property rights protection as the negotiations proceed on the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union, known as Brexit. The paper lists core principles and specific recommendations related to IP for both the UK and the EU.
Associations representing the life sciences industry in the United Kingdom and Europe today issued a call for cooperation on regulation between the UK and European Union on medicines regulation.
NEW DELHI -- Few topics in the global health agenda are as contentious as access to affordable medicines and medical care, and expectedly, divergent views permeated the discussions at a high-level conference in New Delhi, India last week. But if there is one thing that the three-day meet made amply clear, it was this: access to affordable healthcare has emerged as a global problem, and an emerging coalition of the like-minded, cutting across the developed and developing countries, is determined to have their voices heard in international policy circles on the issue.
A new “position paper” by a plant breeders industry group revives the argument that plant-related inventions should be patentable. New plant breeding techniques modifying the plant genome are not essentially biological processes, thus should be patentable, the paper says. The group also calls for a worldwide harmonised research exemption on plant variety rights and patents for the purpose of improving the invention.