Original news and analysis on international IP policy
[Update: Ministers reached a tentative deal Friday night on some aspects of agriculture and NAMA, and will take up services on Saturday, according to ministers.] By William New Word went out Friday evening that there may have been some progress…
By Kaitlin Mara and William New Compromise on intellectual property issues at this week’s World Trade Organization ministerial meeting has been hard to find, but the facilitator of the IP talks said Thursday night that the possibility remains if the…
By Kaitlin Mara and William New A meeting tentatively scheduled for late Wednesday evening to mediate differences of opinion on three intellectual property issues was postponed, at least until Thursday, when consultations may move into smaller groups, sources say. There…
By Kaitlin Mara with William New Key stakeholder nations on intellectual property issues at this week’s World Trade Organization ministerial in Geneva are holding consultations with the Norwegian foreign minister facilitating to iron out positions before meeting later tonight with…
By Kaitlin Mara Some intellectual property rights holders and their representative governments are looking with concern at the drive to hold discussions on draft modalities for IP issues in this week’s World Trade Organization mini-ministerial. Letters sent early this week…
By Kaitlin Mara United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab on Tuesday told reporters at the World Trade Organization that the United States does not plan to negotiate this week on the extension of high-level protections on product names associated with…
By William New and Kaitlin Mara Intellectual property issues have been a topic of debate at the World Trade Organization ministerial negotiations since Friday and while there have been no changes in positions there has been some talk of looking…
[Note: IP issues may be the subject of meetings between ministers and WTO DG Lamy over this weekend, according to sources.] By Kaitlin Mara and William New A new draft of proposed modalities for negotiating three intellectual property issues at…
By Kaitlin Mara A confidential draft text circulated recently among some World Trade Organization members reveals an attempt to consolidate separate proposals aimed at the protection of product names with location-related associations and characteristics (called geographical indications) and at the…
By Kaitlin Mara
Intellectual property is a useful leveraging tool for developing countries eager to see the creation of a global access and benefit-sharing regime on genetic resource use, said a recent panel on biodiversity protections in international law.
"Benefit-sharing was viewed as an integral part of the main bargain between developed and developing countries" when the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was first formed, said Timothy Hodges, a Canadian official who co-chairs an access and benefit-sharing working group under the CBD.