Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By William New The impact of intellectual property policy on innovation and development may have been overstated, and a framework is needed for analysing the linkage between these concepts in developing countries, according to a United Nations researcher. While intellectual…
By Frederick Noronha for Intellectual Property Watch NEW DELHI – For a judge, Yatindra Singh of India’s Allahabad high court is surprisingly outspoken. For a member of the bench, he is also amazingly tech-savvy. And as he talks technology, or…
By Frederick Noronha for Intellectual Property Watch NEW DELHI – What do seeds have in common with software? Or age-old medicines with copyright lawyers? And, what’s the link between ayurvedic medicines and techies talking free software in Bangalore? Such issues…
The world’s largest pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, is suing the Philippine government for having imported and registered – but not marketed – a product that is still under patent. At the same time, industry is said to be lobbying against a…
It is “misleading” and “counter-productive” to assert that a pharmaceutical company’s filing for a patent on a HIV/AIDS drug in India will limit access to the drug in the future, GlaxoSmithKline said in response to an objection submitted today in…
Two Indian HIV/AIDS networks and an international group of lawyers today submitted a protest to the first application for a patent for an HIV/AIDS drug filed in India. The opportunity to stage a “pre-grant opposition” is the “beauty of the…
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…
In what could be seen as a “test case” for the balance between intellectual property protection and the promotion of public health, the Indian government today appeared to meet a World Trade Organisation obligation by passing a law on the…
[Editor’s Note: This story was modified at 6.30pm on Friday 18/2/2005] Washington, D.C.—A key U.S. official based in Beijing on Thursday cited several ways that China’s interpretation of its criminal code may violate the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Trade-Related…