Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The 18th round of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement negotiations is taking place this week in Manila, Philippines. Health activists warn that Japan and South Korea are pushing for measures that go beyond international trade rules on intellectual property, including extending patent terms and data exclusivity in countries such as India, a primary source of cheaper generic medicines.
The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) has long been at the centre of global public health policy in Geneva, representing industry from around the world. Now at a critical moment of change in the policymaking machinery, a new leader, Thomas Cueni of Switzerland, has taken over. Intellectual Property Watch recently sat down with him to discuss his views and vision going forward, and discovered his intellectual pragmatism and diverse experience which promise to open an ambitious new era for the association and global health policy.
There is growing worry and resentment among music performers around the world about the low level of their remuneration and the fact that they are mostly missing their share of the internet music streaming pie, according to speakers at an event held at the World Intellectual Property Organization this week. Performers need a change in international rules, in particular a right to remuneration, they said.
The right of farmers to use, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds should be ensured through national laws and a revision of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), so the objectives of another United Nations international treaty on plant genetic resources can be fulfilled, a recent research paper states.
A group of civil society organisations and health experts have sent a letter to delegates to this month’s annual World Health Assembly urging support for a study on the delinkage of the costs of research and development from the prices of cancer medicines. Member states reportedly met on the issue today and are still undecided.
If piracy is still very much a concern of the music industry, the growing shadow of free online streaming platforms, in particular YouTube, has now become a bigger stinger, according to speakers from the industry at an event at the World Intellectual Property Organization on 2 May. Hiding behind safe harbour legislations originally designed to protect internet service providers from being responsible for unlawful downloading by users, YouTube and other such platforms are threatening the industry and the artists, they said.
Electronic commerce should be the realm of young people under 30 and of small enterprises, according to Alibaba founder Jack Ma, speaking at an event on digital trade in Geneva this week. He also pressed countries to just get on the e-commerce train, and worry about regulations later. Meanwhile, World Trade Organization Director General Roberto Azevêdo said at the same event that without help small companies would no better survive the competition of large companies online than they did in the real world.
For World Intellectual Property Day this year, the World Intellectual Property Organization held a discussion on “Innovation in Communication: A State of Mind,” with a creator designer, a brand consultant and a writer as the panel.
The participation of small-scale farmers at the table of international negotiations and the protection of agricultural biodiversity are key to food security, according to the Quaker United Nations Office, which published last month two policy briefs with a list of recommendations.
Civil society and farmers allege communication blackout from by the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) about a protocol protecting new plant varieties. The 2015 protocol was highly criticised by those organisations as endangering traditional practices of African farmers. Draft regulations could not be adopted in December, but the regional organisation, according to the civil society and farmer groups, is keeping the outcome of the December meeting secret.
An international civil society tribunal has found that agro-business multinational Monsanto conducts activities that violate basic human rights. The five international judges of the Monsanto Tribunal presented their condemning verdict yesterday.
Five years after health institutions and actors including pharmaceutical companies endorsed the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, meant to support the World Health Organization to control and eradicate 10 specific diseases by 2020, new commitments were announced today (18 April) in Geneva.