Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Several members of the European Parliament today sent letters to the directors general of the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization requesting technical assistance in the negotiation of an agreement that some are calling an attempt to circumvent global norms on intellectual property enforcement and related public interest flexibility.
A new accord designed to bolster political and economic ties between the European Union and Central America could result in greater seizures of medicines whenever pharmaceutical companies allege that their patents have been infringed, public health advocates have warned.
“No changes in domestic” law promised the partners currently negotiating the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. A leaked 56-page recent consolidated version of the much-discussed agreement shows that this might not be completely true. The draft version with a lot of bracketed text in it shows that some countries are more open about the potential need to change their domestic laws than others.
Europe will request the publication of the current drafts for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at the next ACTA negotiating meeting in New Zealand in April, EU trade official Luc Devigne said today.
Speaking at the third EU stakeholder meeting on the hotly debated ACTA today in Brussels, Devigne also said there is also a meeting with civil society planned to take place alongside the New Zealand round.
Greater emphasis should be placed on intellectual property issues in the European Union’s trade relations with developing countries, a leading employers group has recommended.
International trademark filings plummeted in 2009 but trends should be reversed as the global economy regains strength with signs already showing in 2010, World Intellectual Property Organization’s Director General Francis Gurry said today.
Finding ways to fund research and regulating medication is critical to international public health policy and intellectual property rights specialists in 2010.
The European Parliament today voted overwhelmingly in favour of a demand to be kept fully informed about the secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement under negotiation by the European Commission and about a dozen countries outside Europe. Parliament also opposed controversial provisions such as personal searches at European borders and cutting internet access for anyone found infringing copyright online three times.
The backlog in patent processing could impose £7.6 billion (about USD$11.3 billion) in annual expenses on the global economy within the next five years if nothing is done to fix it, according to a new economics study from the United Kingdom released this morning before directors of several top global intellectual property offices.
Far-reaching provisions on the patenting of medicine have been inserted into a controversial free trade agreement between the European Union and Colombia and Peru.