Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity last month hailed Cali, Colombia as the birthplace of a protocol they hope will lead to an international regime on access and benefit-sharing by their October 2010 deadline. But, while it is clear the late March negotiation in Cali brought significant progress, participants reported difficult disagreements and in the final days, signs that there is yet more work to be done.
Advocates of stronger protection of geographical indications are working to develop greater awareness in Geneva policy circles, trying to win over countries reluctant to adopt a specific GI protection system.
Delegates to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity today begin the last formal meeting before a late-2010 deadline to negotiate an agreement ensuring fair and equitable access to and benefits from the world’s scarce biological resources.
Le groupe Propriété Intellectuelle de l’Organisation Mondiale pour le Commerce s’est réuni plus brièvement que prévu, le 2 mars 2010, pour discuter d’un éventuel atelier sur un amendement visant à faciliter l’accès à des médicaments génériques abordables pour les pays dépourvus d’industrie pharmaceutique, d’une nouvelle proposition de la Bolivie, et de trois questions de propriété intellectuelle qui, bien qu’anciennes, n’ont pas connu de développement significatif.
Geographical indications (GIs) can be a tool for sustainable development in rural areas and are attracting a rising interest from developing country producers, but some ingredients must be taken into account, such as an effective legal framework and collective management of the GIs, according to a recently released guide produced by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
CAIRO - The launch this week on the new campus of American University in Cairo of a new centre and a new book on access to knowledge in Egypt offered a view on the complexities of the issues and the challenges developing countries face to ensure global intellectual property rights are incorporated into their legal systems in the most locally productive ways possible.
Las culturas de los pueblos indígenas a menudo no se han tenido en cuenta en la elaboración de las normas mundiales de propiedad intelectual, según se afirma en un nuevo informe de las Naciones Unidas.
Access and benefit sharing will top agendas at several different intergovernmental bodies this year on issues of biodiversity, environment, food security and traditional knowledge, and stakeholders will be watching the movement across fora of emerging models and potential pitfalls from parallel negotiations.
Biodiversity preservation is getting a makeover, or so hope the organisers of an “EcoChic” event at the Palais de Nations yesterday. Attendees strategised about how the fickle spirit of fashion might be harnessed to support the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s access and benefit-sharing regime and sustainability goals, as staff carefully anchored helium-filled white lanterns above a normally staid conference chamber and participants balanced on noticeably higher heels than normally seen in UN corridors.
The cultures of indigenous peoples have frequently been ignored when global standards on intellectual property were being set, a new United Nations report has stated.
Intellectual property related to geographically-specific products can be harnessed for development purposes, argued panellists at a recent event in Geneva. But there are specific challenges related to using such tools in the developing world that must also be addressed.
After an auspicious beginning on substantive issues, the World Intellectual Property Organization traditional knowledge committee stalled on matters of procedure at the end of its meeting last week. With no mandate, a committee working group will not meet in early 2010 as planned, and the full committee will move meet again sooner than scheduled to try to agree on process.