Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Sinfah Tunsarawuth for Intellectual Property Watch BANGKOK – Thai and foreign public health campaigners on Friday urged governments to exercise their right over patent owners to provide access to cheaper essential medicines for the poor. They also called for…
In the ongoing WHO debate over the sharing of virus strains and benefits accruing from that sharing (including potential patenting), Indonesia has been facing off against much of the developed world and its industry in seeking new strong measures to…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch RIO DE JANEIRO – The debate over whether the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) should grow beyond its no-decisions, dialogue-only capacity was under consideration from the opening of the meeting here Monday. While a…
By Sinfah Tunsarawuth for Intellectual Property Watch BANGKOK – Thai government officials said the latest round of negotiations with patent owners of cancer treatment drugs showed positive results with drug companies agreeing to make their supplies more available to certain…
By Sinfah Tunsarawuth for Intellectual Property Watch BANGKOK – Thailand has in its pipeline about 20 more items of various patented drugs that could be candidates for compulsory licences, allowing the government to exercise its right over the patent owners…
By William New There is more to the story of enforcing intellectual property rights than one typically reads in the media, and developing country governments should defend themselves against unfair enforcement practices, officials and activists said recently. Speakers gave their…
Por David Cronin para Intellectual Property Watch BRUSELAS – Aumenta la preocupación tanto en Europa como en los países en desarrollo sobre si diversos acuerdos de libre comercio, cuya firma está programada para finales del presente año, contendrán normas demasiado…
By Jia Hepeng for Intellectual Property Watch
BEIJING - China is proposing a fund to help its enterprises cope with rising international litigation related to intellectual property rights (IPRs).
The message, together with other measures, was delivered by Zhang Qin, deputy director of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) at a national corporate IPR meeting on 2 September, but it was not made public until 10 September.
Sun Pingping, a spokeswoman of SIPO, confirmed the news, saying the scale and detailed operation of the fund have not been finalised.
Zhang told the corporate meeting that international legal cases on IP that Chinese enterprises face have been growing. While some of the lawsuits arise from Chinese enterprises' poor IPR awareness and ownership, it is possible that some multinationals are abusing IPR to block the rise of Chinese firms, he said.
By David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch A dispute has erupted between two of the European Union’s most powerful institutions over Thailand’s decision to circumvent pharmaceutical patents in order to boost its supply of cheap medicines. Peter Mandelson, who holds…
By Tatum Anderson for Intellectual Property Watch As Indian lawyers for Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis comb through a High Court judgment published today, the question of whether the Indian patent law is compliant with a World Trade Organization treaty remains…