Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Open AIR project has gone global. The research project’s findings were presented in a recent side event at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The findings, published in two books, assess how people from different African countries and sectors consider and use intellectual property and present three possible scenarios about how people will innovate in the next two decades.
A working group established by the international seed treaty of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) this week is examining ways to raise its income level, in particular innovative approaches to attract more industry participation.
The Geneva IP delegates list is updated! As a special feature for our subscribers, Intellectual Property Watch has assembled a new list of many of the leading government delegates working on intellectual property issues in Geneva.
The World Intellectual Property Organization recently published a paper entitled, “Documenting Traditional Medical Knowledge.” Withthe growing use of traditional and alternative medicines in developed countries, their importance in developing countries' health systems and the multi-billion dollar potential of benefits for companies, “documenting and protecting these medicines is becoming a greater priority,” the document states.
The European Union Council of Ministers on 14 April adopted a decision approving the ratification of a protocol meant to facilitate access to genetic resources and to provide the fair sharing of commercial benefits with provider countries. The target date for ratification is July 2014, according to the EU.
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), an enigma organisation to some, has published a list of answers to frequently asked questions on its website.
The African Regional Intellectual Property Office last week obtained a positive decision at the international level on its draft law to protect new varieties of plants. Amid protest from civil society, the regional office now has to adopt the draft law and has said it would convene a diplomatic conference (high-level negotiation) in 2014 in order to do so.
ames Anaya, United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, today called on the owners of the Washington Redskins Football team to recognise that the name ‘Redskins’ constitutes a “hurtful reminder” of the “long history of mistreatment of Native American people in the United States.”
After two weeks of drafting articles of potential international instruments aimed at protecting traditional knowledge and folklore from misappropriation, World Intellectual Property Organization delegates agreed to forward the revised texts for the consideration of the General Assembly in September.
World Intellectual Property Organization delegates this week are trying to refine draft articles relating to the protection of traditional cultural expressions (folklore) that could form the basis for an international instrument. Delegates also are considering the connection of the issue to traditional knowledge.
Just like the draft text on the protection of genetic resources last month, a set of draft articles on the protection of traditional knowledge have cleared a hurdle and will be forwarded to the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly next autumn.
World Intellectual Property Organization member states today are trying to agree on the draft text of a potential international instrument to protect traditional knowledge from misappropriation.