Category Bilateral/Regional Negotiations

Most-Read IP-Watch Stories In 2014: A Tale Of Staff Issues, India, Hot-Button Topics

All year long, Intellectual Property Watch expends great energy and resources to bring hundreds of carefully written, detailed stories on policymaking - technical committee meetings, legislation, negotiations, legal cases, and latest reports and papers. But in what is perhaps typical of readers everywhere, many of the best-read IP-Watch stories of 2014 were those few that involved elections and personnel issues and India, followed by a range of hot button issues such as high-priced medicines, copyright and knowledge access, patent valuation, or internet surveillance.

Special Report: Strictly Business: US IP Attachés Report Home

WASHINGTON, DC – Last week was ‘old home week’ for officials in the United States intellectual property attaché program, as they returned before the holidays from their posts around the world. Speaking publicly, the officials gave mixed reports on the fight to advance IP rights worldwide. They also heard harsh but determined words about the situation in Geneva from the industry perspective. Two more attaché offices will open next year, and several attachés last week called for an elevation in their rank in order to enable them to have access to higher level officials in other countries.

US, China Put Emphasis On IP Issues

The United States and China yesterday concluded a three-day high-level meeting with numerous outcomes on intellectual property rights, including: local treatment of IP, trade secrets, geographical indications, inventor rights, patent data, sales of IP-intensive goods and services, online infringement, treatment of IP in standard-setting, bad-faith trademark filings, judicial best practices, and licensing of technology, according to the United States.

USTR Froman Presses India On IPR Regime

"Nearly one-third of all Silicon Valley start-ups have an Indian-American co-founder," United States Trade Representative Michael Froman said in remarks on India today. The country of India is also innovating, but it must do more to have and enforce a world-class intellectual property rights regime, he said.

Hard Bargaining In IP Chapter Of Trans-Pacific Partnership, Trade Ministers Say

Intellectual property is still one of the most complex and challenging areas of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as some countries are holding fast to high levels of IP protection to promote innovation and creativity, while others continue to seek a greater emphasis on access to ideas. This appears to be the message of today's statement from trade ministers of countries negotiating the TPP.

USTR’s Investigations On IP Rights Against India: Is There A Tenable Case?

On 14 October, the US Trade Representative (USTR) began the out-of-cycle review (OCR) of India’s intellectual property (IP) laws, the mandate which it gave itself in the 2014 Special 301 Report. Like several years in the past, the USTR once again included India in the Priority Watch List, but this time, India’s IP laws are being subjected to the additional scrutiny through an OCR. It is to be seen whether the OCR sets the stage for naming India as a Priority Foreign Country, viewed by the USTR as worst offender of intellectual property rights, in the next Special 301 report. USTR’s inclusion of India for the OCR was a reflection of the influence that the domestic lobbies have on the country’s engagement with its partner countries, and about USTR's consistency with World Trade Organization rules, writes Biswajit Dhar.

The TPP’s New Plant-Related Intellectual Property Provisions

The newly-released Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) intellectual property (IP) chapter would help seed conglomerates like Monsanto prevent farmers from saving and using seeds that contain patented plant materials, even when such use is for their own personal consumption. The TPP language would also prevent breeders from using plants seeds that contain patented plant materials to research and develop new varieties. Most plant variety protection (PVP) systems allow farmers to save and reuse seeds (for noncommercial purposes) and permit breeders to use protected plant varieties to research and develop new varieties. In contrast, patents on plant-related inventions, as outlined in the TPP, may have few exceptions. This new text constitutes a huge step in the wrong direction, changing the plant IP regimes of many of the negotiating countries to the detriment of their populations, writes Public Citizen.

Leaked TPP Draft Reveals Extreme Rights Holder Position Of US, Japan, Outraged Observers Say

Critics poring over a newly leaked alleged draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) intellectual property chapter say it shows the United States is taking an all-out lurch toward greater protection and less access, causing outrage among public interest groups.