Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Preparing patents is both a science and an art. The science is often easy to recognize, if not always easy to understand. The art of properly expressing that science in the words of a patent claim is harder to evaluate and is more often overlooked, yet is crucial to the value of the patent, write Heather J. DiPietrantonio and Edmund J. Walsh.
The United States Senate is expected to hold a vote on a bill to modify US patent law, in part making it more closely aligned with international practices, according to Senate sources. But some are concerned the bill will not end patent fee diversion at the US Patent and Trademark Office.
In a long-awaited decision, a United States federal appeals court has decided that US companies can patent breast cancer genes, reversing a previous ruling. The decision was not unanimous, with one of the three judges dissenting. But despite the attention the case has received, the ruling may have little impact on the biotechnology industry, according to analysts.
India and the European Union announced a written agreement yesterday that puts more conditions on EU customs authorities before they can stop shipments of generic pharmaceuticals passing through Europe. No longer is the existence of an EU patent on passing generics sufficient cause to stop shipments. The agreement suspends a World Trade Organization dispute started by India last year.
The third amendment of Patents Act 1970, in 2005, was a major breakthrough for Indian IP practice in patents. The current crop of judicial decisions, discussed in this note, has initiated the need to have a critical mass of judicial precedents streamlining law and rules governing patent practice in India, writes Kamakhya Srivastava.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has issued a new statement about a future contract with the United States for root zone management and other internet infrastructure functions, warning against undermining the multistakeholder model for governing core internet infrastructures.
Delegates working on an international instrument to protect traditional knowledge and folklore against misappropriation today agreed this afternoon to ask the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly in September to extend the mandate of the committee working on those issues.
Delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization this week continued work on evolving draft texts of treaties to protect genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs), or folklore. But more work will be needed to complete them, according to participants.
Gilead's recently announced ARV licenses to the Medicines Patent Pool, although positive in some respects, still unreasonably limit the geographical access of key middle-income countries and restrict the sourcing of APIs and products to Indian companies, meaning that both generics companies and excluded countries will need to make strategic decisions to bypass the defects in the licenses, writes Brook Baker.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) under negotiation by a group of countries including those in the European Union is more ambitious than current EU law and risks problems for access to medicines, concluded a recent study commissioned by the European Parliament Committee on International Trade. But the study stops short of calling for a flat rejection of the agreement.
The European Commission yesterday announced the availability of nearly €7 billion euros (nearly US$10 billion) to boost innovation, its biggest grant ever for research and development. The move is predicted to create 174,000 jobs in the short-term and some 450,000 jobs and €80 billion in economic growth over the next 15 years.
The UN World Intellectual Property Organization yesterday invited a panel of international film producers and star Spanish actor Javier Bardem to sing the praise of an international treaty to help the audiovisual industry address the problem of unauthorised downloads of content that is a hallmark of the digital age.