Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Geographical indications (GIs) have become a political issue and a key priority for the European Union in the run-up to the December World Trade Organization ministerial in Hong Kong as GIs today officially became part of the EU’s agriculture package.…
The World Trade Organization committee handling intellectual property issues finished four days of meetings with minimal progress in real terms, but kept several issues alive for the December WTO ministerial in Hong Kong. The WTO Council on the Agreement on…
As nations prepare for a possible avian flu pandemic, some observers are raising questions about a seemingly obscure footnote in international trade law under which dozens of governments have agreed not to import cheap generic drugs made for poor countries.…
The United States, Japan and Switzerland have taken bilateral actions through the World Trade Organization to probe China’s intellectual property rights enforcement, despite Chinese objections. The three nations are requesting more transparency based on Article 63.3 of the WTO Agreement…
Officials at the World Trade Organization committee responsible for intellectual property issues on Tuesday could not agree on how to permanently change trade law to permit poor countries in need to import drugs made elsewhere under compulsory license. The WTO…
Issues surrounding nations’ legal ability to obtain sufficient quantities of patented medicines to protect their people from the spread of avian influenza may be addressed at today’s meeting of the World Trade Organization committee responsible for intellectual property rights matters.…
While Swiss-based Roche, the rights holder to the most-favoured medicine for avian influenza, is pursuing sub-licenses, India is moving ahead with exploring the option of compulsory licensing. If this goes through, India would be able to export Tamiflu to developing…
Russia is negotiating for accession to the World Trade Organization at the same time it is talking with the United States bilaterally about exceeding the terms of the WTO agreement on intellectual property rights, and a senior Russian official said…
Roche, the Swiss-based company with rights to a medicine believed to be the most effective in the event of an avian influenza pandemic, has expressed openness to discussing arrangements with companies or governments to produce more of its flu treatment…
Paris—The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) today approved a treaty for the protection of cultural diversity despite an all-out drive by the United States to get governments to change their minds. “We really pulled out all the stops”…
An ad hoc, high-level global business leaders’ group that was in Geneva last week to push World Trade Organization negotiators to move forward on free-trade talks highlighted the importance of intellectual property rights protection. But the group stopped short of…
PARIS — Attempts by the United States and Japan to reopen negotiations on a UN draft treaty on cultural diversity today are meeting with firm resistance from developed and developing countries alike. While most nations’ ministers present at the UN…