Category Lobbying

Dozens Of NGOs Oppose Proposed EU Watch List On IP Rights

A wide-ranging list of international nongovernmental organisations today issued a letter to European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström opposing a proposal to establish a "watch list" of countries deemed failing to protect European intellectual property. The groups raised concern that the list would violate World Trade Organization rules on intellectual property, have a chilling effect on developing countries' public health initiatives, and lead to expanded and untenable levels of IP enforcement.

Fairness In Research Partnerships, Reporting System Presented At Geneva Health Forum

Research collaborations between institutions in the North and institutions in the South often show a scientific and power imbalance. In the context of growing concerns about this issue, initiatives are being developed to increase fairness in research partnerships. In particular, the Research Fairness Initiative, providing a reporting system for institutions is gaining traction, according to speakers at the Geneva Health Forum this week.

Springtime Moves In The IP Community

The beginning of the year saw a particularly high number of changes at law firms and in the United States government. Also the World Trade Organization named a list of new chairpersons for its committees, the World Economic Forum named the head of its new cybersecurity centre, and Swiss pharma company Roche has a new head of research and development.

Better Cyber Security Problematic, Says US Financial Industry: Power Struggle Over Encryption

A decision to keep third party listeners out of communications on the internet taken by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) at their recent meeting in London elicited an alarmist message from the US financial industry. The premier internet standardisation body would provide “privacy for crooks,” and practically prohibit “bank security guards from patrolling and checking particular rooms” online, BITS, the technology division of the Financial Services Roundtable, argued in a press release last week. Has standardisation gone rogue?

UAEM Students Launch Campaign To Drop Publicly Funded Patent Claim On Cancer Drug In India

The Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) this week launched a campaign to ask the University of California to drop its pursuit of a patent on the prostrate cancer drug Xtandi in India in order to make it affordable for patients. Xtandi sells at "exorbitant" rates in the United States, they said, a seeming violation of the licensing guidelines of the publicly funded University of California system which guarantees an "appropriate" return on taxpayer investments.

US Generic-Named Food Industries Cry For US Government Help Against ‘Relentlessly Aggressive’ EU

Something that was unimaginable just a few years ago: What if Americans could not buy ordinary bologna, feta or parmesan cheese? Or worse, make them and export them under those names? The industry group in the United States representing a range of products like those today called on the US government to help them defend their products and their jobs against what they called "purposeful," "relentless" and "aggressive" efforts by Europe to promote adoption of geographical indications (products named for places and with particular characteristics) to the detriment of the US common-named goods.

Video Gaming Industry Issues Attack On WHO’s Proposed Gaming Disorder Classification

Teens' (and others') life-altering obsession with video gaming is well-known to almost any parent in most countries around the world, and the World Health Organization recently identified it as an addiction called "gaming disorder." Today, the self-acclaimed $36 billion video gaming industry hit back with a statement about a new paper from "preeminent researchers and scientists" that it says casts doubt on the WHO's efforts.