Original news and analysis on international IP policy
With an increase in the number of entrepreneur artisans in Uganda, a need to protect and benefit from the artisan works has emerged in the country. There is a growing trend in rights management, especially in the fields of musical works, film and art.
The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development recently issued papers on competition analyses of licensing agreements and on the measurement of trade and innovation.
The Medicines Patent Pool today announced a new licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences for a new treatment still undergoing clinical trials. This agreement is expected to allow Chinese and Indian generic manufacturers to provide low-cost versions of the drug in 112 low-and middle-income countries.
The European Commission white paper on its ongoing copyright reform will not be available until early fall, a Commission source said this week. Officials had previously indicated that the paper might be published this month.
The Takedown Project is a recent initiative bringing the research community together to explore how the notice-and-takedown procedure in cases of alleged online copyright infringement are handled by internet service providers around the world. The project aims to create greater transparency in order to improve the quality of this global regulatory system.
Since that fateful night in 1998 when former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms slipped a provision on behalf of US rum-maker Bacardi into an appropriations bill blocking a Cuban-French company from using the Havana Club trademark in the US, it was expected the provision would eventually be overturned.
Microsoft, a strong advocate of intellectual property protection, has launched an online IP portal in Kenya with the aim of helping innovators better understand different means of protecting their software and reap the economic benefits of their innovations. The initiative is planned to spread to other African countries.
United Nations experts are underlining the importance of using the term “indigenous peoples” in a UN draft set of sustainable development goals from which they say the term has been deleted.
An Indian pharmaceutical industry group has challenged the United States Trade Representative’s assessment of India’s intellectual property protection regime and suggested that India received more severe treatment than other countries solely on the basis of treatment of patented pharmaceuticals that it says is allowed under international rules.
New generic top-level domain names seem set to be a constant source of discussions and dissension. The domain “.pharmacy” has been awarded to a United States pharmacy association with industry backing, stirring concerns among civil society and others. But the association insists it will work in an impartial manner to ensure safety of online pharmaceutical sales.
A European Union-funded initiative is seeking to strengthen the links between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the research community on environmental technologies.
Is Europe the most innovative region in the world? In a well-regarded report, Switzerland has again been deemed the world’s most innovative nation, followed by the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands. But the annual Global Innovation Index also shows a persistent innovation divide between developed and developing countries, and this year focuses on the human factor in innovation.