Original news and analysis on international IP policy
At the World Trade Organization Public Forum last week, a panel explored opportunities for Africa in global and regional value chains. A certain level of development needs to be achieved so that countries can benefit from global value chains, speakers said.
The use of internet continues to grow rapidly in Uganda. The Uganda Communications Commission’s quarterly report reveals that the country had over eight million internet users by the end of first quarter of 2014.
Now, the government of Uganda is involved in a struggle over who should have the custodial rights to manage the .ug domain, the country’s Country Code Top-Level Domain, (ccTLD), which is currently run by a third party.
Infojustice.org writes: Last week, 23 civil society groups released the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms at the Internet Governance Forum, infojustice.org reports. The declaration is organized around twelve key principles, including Freedom of Expression and the Right to Information and Open Data.
Compulsory licences should be issued to roll out generic versions of innovative HCV drugs. Only generic competition can push down the extortionate prices of these lifesaving medicines, while placing equitable access and public interest before monopolistic pharma companies’ business strategies, Daniele Dionisio argues.
With an increase in the number of entrepreneur artisans in Uganda, a need to protect and benefit from the artisan works has emerged in the country. There is a growing trend in rights management, especially in the fields of musical works, film and art.
Microsoft, a strong advocate of intellectual property protection, has launched an online IP portal in Kenya with the aim of helping innovators better understand different means of protecting their software and reap the economic benefits of their innovations. The initiative is planned to spread to other African countries.
As the governments of the largest emerging economies gather this week in Brazil, a civil society coalition has issued a call for them to lead change in the global system of internet governance in light of revelations of mass surveillance. The groups provide suggestions for constructing a system that ensures human rights, equity and social justice for all people.
A group of African civil society institutions is calling for a revision of the draft protocol on plant variety protection of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the funding of the Group of 77 developing countries. the group published a declaration reaffirming the needs of developing countries. The group, they said, was established to address imbalances in the global economy which still prevail today.
Over 70 organisations globally have called on the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to urgently finalise South Africa’s National Intellectual Property (IP) Policy in an open letter delivered yesterday.