Original news and analysis on international IP policy
How sensitive is US trade? Perhaps as an indication of its approach to the press, the United States Trade Representative's office yesterday published its weekly "press week ahead" full of events that would be of interest to domestic and international press - and 100 percent closed to press.
This week the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is holding the annual meeting of its governing body, and preparatory meetings leading up to it. A seminar also is being held on essentially derived varieties. Meanwhile, civil society is asking that all the meeting documents be held public while demonstrating that restricted documents can be obtained through national freedom of information rights.
Poland’s Minister of Science and Higher Education Barbara Kudrycka has announced plans to modify Poland’s intellectual property law by providing scientists with property rights to the results of their research.
The revelations of mass surveillance by the US and other intelligence services are expected to considerably influence the 8th Internet Governance Forum in Bali, Indonesia this week.
The European Commission wants feedback from interested parties on a proposal by Samsung Electronics to resolve an antitrust investigation. The case relates to Samsung's efforts to enforce standard essential patents (SEPs) it owns for mobile communications technology. SEPs are patents that protect technologies essential for the implementation of an industry standard developed by a standard-setting organisation.
A newly published study from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) outlines significant problems in accessing medicines in South Africa – which is said to have the highest number of people living with HIV in the world – and urges its government to use available tools under international trade law such as exceptions to patents on needed medicines.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued its draft strategic plan for 2014-2018 and is asking for comments.
A recent European Union regulation on customs enforcement of intellectual property rights has raised concerns among civil society actors who find that the regulation might not be an improvement over its previous version under which seizure of legal generic medicines in transit occurred a few years ago, leading to a World Trade Organization dispute.
Alongside last week’s meeting of the World Trade Organization intellectual property committee, the United States, European Union and Jamaica organised an event on the relevance of intellectual property in sports. Speakers from professional organisations such as the International Olympic Committee, the Association of European Professional Football Leagues, and the Nike company were invited to share their experience in the matter.
Innovation experts participating in a two-day seminar at the United Nations in Geneva last week highlighted the complexities as well as the potential benefits linked to the promotion of innovative practices in public administrations at the national, regional and local levels.
A new study of 12 leading international standard-setting organisations (SSOs) found a high degree of inconsistency and lack of clarity when it comes to intellectual property rights and licensing. The study also includes analyses on how standards policies are evolving in Brazil, China and India.
The GAVI Alliance launched a mid-term report this week showing that the public-private partnership is on track to immunise more than 250 million children by 2015 and prevent some four million deaths. GAVI’s CEO said it uses multiple tools to help reduce prices of vaccine and that intellectual property rights do not pose a serious threat to its success.