Category Technical Cooperation/ Technology Transfer

Vaccines In Middle-Income Countries, Non-Communicable Diseases Discussed At WHO

Availability and accessibility of vaccines in middle-income countries was raised today at the World Health Organization as member states are ploughing through a heavy agenda. Noncommunicable diseases were also discussed and delegates sitting on the Executive Board agreed on a formal meeting before the next World Health Assembly to complete terms of reference for a global coordination mechanism to prevent and control the growing epidemic.

Top IP-Watch Stories Of 2013: India, Marrakesh Treaty, Seed/Gene Patents, WIPO Election

Looking back on 2013, the list of the most-viewed stories on the Intellectual Property Watch website shows that reporting on activities in India, especially related to patents and public health, continued to draw the most attention. Other top stories were the Marrakesh Treaty on copyright exceptions for blind readers, legal cases involving patents on seeds and on plant and human genes, the election for World Intellectual Property Organization director general, free-trade agreements (including the Wikileaks leak of the IP chapter of the Trans-Atlantic Partnership agreement), Russian copyrights, and 3D printing.

Global Pharma, Biopharma Patent Laws In Spotlight At CPhI’s Pharma IPR Conference in India

An upcoming conference in Mumbai, India will look at patent laws related to the pharmaceutical and biopharma industries regionally and internationally.

CPhI's 3rd Annual Pharma IPR 2014, taking place from 26-28 February, is a targeted conference focusing on patent related matters for pharma and biopharma industry across the globe. It is intended to provide an ideal learning and networking platform where techno-legal experts from patent law firms across the globe share an update on patent regimes, changes in patent laws, and enforceability of patent laws in different regions with the pharma and biopharma companies.

The conference agenda will cover most debated subjects like: inter-partes review; one year after the implementation of the America Invents Act; reverse payments settlements cases; current implementation of the Unitary Patent System in the EU; and formulating strategies to introduce generic products in international markets.

The programme will cover patent laws of over 13 regions including the US, EU, Japan, Mexico, Canada, India, South East Asia, and Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries.

Click here to view the region-wise agenda.

Free download for IP-Watch Readers! Click here to view presentations from 2013!

Developing Countries Lack Capacity To Take Advantage Of Marrakesh Treaty

The 2013 Marrakesh Treaty has been applauded by beneficiaries throughout the world for answering the need for wider access to special format works for visually impaired people. However, the path to its implementation, even after it is ratified by enough countries, appears to be strewn with difficulties in developing countries, which will need capacity-building, according to a speaker at a discussion panel organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

WIPO Assembly: Potential Design Treaty Misses Train To Russia In June, Still On Track For 2014

It took World Intellectual Property Organization members long hours in informal consultations over the past two days and far into last night to try solving two outstanding issues in the extraordinary session of the organisation’s General Assembly. Yet another extraordinary session is on the way in May to try to agree on the convening of a diplomatic conference – a high level treaty negotiation - on industrial designs later in 2014.

Future Scenarios, IP Tax Evasion, Informal Sector, And Patents In Africa

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – A conference here on intellectual property, innovation and the public interest included a look at different possible futures for Africa, global IP tax evasion schemes, a discussion of the strong informal sector, and some views on the relative weakness of patent quality on the continent.

The EU-Thailand FTA: What Fate For Access To Medicines?

Following the public outcry over the EU’s demands for stringent intellectual property rules that would dramatically raise medicines prices in India, you would expect the EU to think twice about making similar demands in future trade agreements, particularly with low- and middle-income countries. Yet, this is precisely what is going on now in the negotiations for a free trade agreement between the EU and Thailand, writes Tessel Mellema.