Original news and analysis on international IP policy
After months of repeated difficulties in WIPO committees plagued by stalled decisions or inability to agree on future work, the World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) appears to have turned the odds and managed to agree on two longstanding issues.
The World Health Organization Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework is at risk due to some companies not fulfilling their obligations, a new WHO report says.
Proposals for products to help fight Ebola are coming in to the World Health Organization, but few look promising so far, an official said today. Meanwhile, efforts are on to establish testing sites for potential products, and thinking is still in the early stages on intellectual property rights for new drugs in development.
Dr. Carolyn Deere Birkbeck writes: At this week’s Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP), WIPO Member States continue to debate next steps on the unprecedented 2011 External Review of WIPO’s assistance to developing countries. With a new Deputy Director General for the WIPO’s Development Sector due to start work this December, the prospect of new leadership also marks a time for Members to provide clear direction. They should act this week and in the coming months to set clear priorities for the Secretariat - and for themselves – that would give greater focus to the ongoing work of improving WIPO’s development cooperation activities, and to establish a mechanism for monitoring progress.
The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), with the help of the United States and an international plant variety organisation, is working to grow regional support for a controversial draft law. The draft protocol would boost protection for new plant varieties, despite concerns of local civil society that it would not be in the best interest of ARIPO members’ food security due to its potential impact on small farmers. ARIPO held a regional workshop on the issue in recent weeks in part to build support for a treaty negotiation to lock in these protections.
A lighter mood seems to have set in at the World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP), after a year of what was qualified as a cycle of disagreements by some. Although delegates reiterated previous positions on some longstanding agenda items, some middle-ground alternatives seem to have gained attention.
BRUSSELS – European experts in research, industry and policymaking at a recent conference here discussed the importance of integrating standards, research and business into the cycle of innovation in Europe.
In this opinion, the European Copyright Society (ECS) puts on record its views on the issues raised by the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Case C-201/13, Deckmyn, which departs from the doctrine of strict interpretation of exceptions and limitations in cases in which fundamental rights such as freedom of expression are involved.
The following is a contributed summary of recent news in China from various sources. The Beijing Intellectual Property Court, China’s first specialised IP court, came into being on 6 November, for which a ceremony unveiling the court’s nameplate was held at the court’s domicile in the capital city’s Haidian District, home to many technology giants and universities.
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.
The World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) opened today with a heavy agenda and open issues that carried over from past sessions. In particular, delegates are expected to find agreement on a list of speakers, which would unlock the convening of an international conference on IP and development. They also must agree on the terms of reference of an independent review of WIPO’s implementation of the 45 Recommendations of the 2007 Development Agenda.
Once again, differences over the role of a World Intellectual Property Organization committee last week came in the way of consensus and prevented delegates from agreeing on future work. At the heart of the discontent was the perceived imbalance of the proposed programme of work, which some said disregarded the interests of developing countries. A speaker for the African region gave a striking speech on the Ebola crisis as an example of the failure of the patent system.