Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Consumer representatives, United Nations diplomats, drug industry representatives and others this week discussed a proposal to form a patent pool for essential medicines. The proposal was put forward by Consumers International and the Consumer Project on Technology (CP Tech) at…
Brazil, a developing country leader on international intellectual property issues, has come under pressure at home and abroad over whether to lift domestic patents on foreign pharmaceuticals for AIDS to allow cheaper generic versions to be produced. This week, nearly…
Ten years after the signing of a multilateral agreement pitched as a vehicle to help developing countries defend against unilateral actions against them by larger countries, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) annual report on trading partners’ protection…
Ambassador Linnet Deily, the United States representative to the World Trade Organization, has informed staff that she will be leaving office on June 15, according to a US trade official. Deily, who said she will be returning to the United…
On the coattails of last week’s multi-sided seminar on intellectual property and development at the World Intellectual Property Organisation came a half-day Georgetown University forum on “intellectual property, technology diffusion and economic development.” The Georgetown forum, held in Geneva outside…
Many of the top experts on the subject of intellectual property and global development shared views in Geneva last week at a World Intellectual Property Organisation seminar. But while the event may have served to spell out the current debate…
Members of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on Friday failed to agree on the proper role for a permanent committee on technical cooperation that could impact larger efforts by some to reform WIPO toward development issues. Debate focused on…
Non-governmental organisations from across the spectrum were elbow to elbow with members of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) this week as they wrestled with a proposal for an agenda to increase attention to the needs of developing countries. Private…
World Intellectual Property Organisation members late Wednesday night agreed to continue discussing a proposal to more deeply infuse developing country needs into the mission of the UN body. After three full days of closed-door meetings – much of them in…
Developed and developing countries faced off Monday over whether and how the U.N. World Intellectual Property Organisation’s mission should be transformed to better address the needs of developing countries. The basis for the three-day discussion ending Wednesday at the Geneva-based…
India, a critical player in policy debates at the World Intellectual Property Organisation, has announced its opposition to a recommendation on global patent harmonisation backed by a select group of countries in a February consultation with WIPO Director General Kamil…
On the eve of high-level meetings next week on development and intellectual property, the fourteen co-sponsors of the proposal for the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s new Development Agenda today submitted detailed elaborations of their proposals for incorporating development into WIPO’s…