Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Honduras has submitted a request for the formation of a dispute settlement panel at the World Trade Organization regarding a tobacco plain-packaging law Australia has passed for public health reasons.
With his distinctive clerical garb, Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi stood out in a sea of coat and tie-wearing dignitaries at the recent General Assemblies of the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. His presence is a glaring reminder to every stakeholder in the room that intellectual property, often associated with excessive and self-serving patent wars these days, has a place in the Catholic Church.
Following the recent approval by the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly of a work plan toward a diplomatic conference in 2013, WIPO members are gathering this week to advance work on a draft treaty on exceptions to copyright for visually impaired readers.
A new open-access journal for science, eLife, has released its first collection of research articles.
Washington, DC - Standards guide many aspects of our lives. They instruct how telephones talk to each other, how the life sciences community shares information, how electrical devices are charged, and how the internet runs, among other things.
It’s standard-setting organisations (SSOs) that facilitate discussions among stakeholders - including intellectual property owners and users - and produce common, typically voluntary technical standards to address needs and concerns of those using the technology. Companies need to make compatible or interoperable products that comply with these standards in order to compete in the global marketplace. And intellectual property is increasingly coming into play in the development of these standards.
The first meeting of the World Health Organization member state mechanism to prevent and control so-called substandard, spurious, falsely-labelled, falsified, and counterfeit medical products (SSFFC) will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 19-21 November.
Copyright collective management and creators' organisations Monday accused digital technology industry group DIGITALEUROPE of trying to hijack a mediation process aimed at straightening out the EU's messy system of private copying and reprographic levies. In its 4 October paper setting out alternatives to device-based copyright levies, DIGITALEUROPE urged the European Commission to initiate comprehensive reform that includes replacing levies with some other forms of compensation to rights holders.
An international network of civil society groups has issued a set of proposals for governments to encourage innovation and access to key technologies against climate change while taking intellectual property rights into account.
The Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is in the final phases of selecting its next executive director. In the run-up to the decision, the international financing institution is multiplying signs of its good health as it looks to turn a corner after months of major reforms.
Global health needs innovation but also to ensure equitable access for the world population, panellists at a roundtable said last week. At issue is the capacity of the pharmaceutical industry to innovate, and the potential barriers to access in a context of widespread diseases that blur the boundaries between developed and developing countries. Most panellists concluded that governments should hold primary responsibility for the health of their populations.
The new CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Fadi Chehadé, today announced a new structure to enhance transparency, visibility and balance of the private net managing body to be presented on the opening day of the Toronto meeting.
At the ongoing 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad, the hot topic is funds and how to mobilize it. The mega-conference is taking place in the shadow of a global economic slowdown, and delegates gathered at this southern Indian city are most concerned about how to drum up funds to tackle the world’s shrinking biodiversity - the variety of animal and plant life on earth.