Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The findings, conclusions and preliminary recommendations of a European Commission initiative on the conservation and sustainable use of genetic diversity are to be presented in June, the Commission has announced.
Russia is continuing to strengthen its national legislation in the field of intellectual property, through the provision of means for foreign copyright holders to more actively protect their intellectual property in Russia and the elimination of bureaucratic hurdles, according to official sources.
BRUSSELS -- Patents applications are on the rise in Europe the European Patent Office President Benoît Battistelli said today, with half of the applications coming from European inventors. The United States led followed by Germany, and Japan, and China showing a strong growth. The EPO president also announced the signature of an agreement with one trade union against a background of social unrest in the organisation.
The European Union and Canada have jointly announced the finalisation of the legal review for Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
The saga of fights between the President of the European Patent Office, Benoît Battistelli, and the trade union SUEPO goes on with a recent decision to fire two and degrade one member of the trade union. Demonstrations at both the Netherlands and the Munich sites of the EPO continue, and further divisions between the president and the EPO Administrative Council are being reported. Battistelli spoke with Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch in January about his view of the fight and about what else he has on his plate as he had decided to continue for one more term in office.
By July trade negotiators from the United States and the European Union want to present a draft text that only has brackets for the “most sensitive issues” in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This was announced by Ignacio Bercero, chief negotiator for the European Union, and his US counterpart Dan Mullaney during a press conference today after this week's 12th round of TTIP negotiations in Brussels.
Just days before the restart of negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on 22 February in Brussels, a large coalition of non-governmental organisations led by the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) published a critical report on new proposals for the highly debated investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms. The activists called the Investment Court System (ICS) prepared by EU Commissioner Malmstroem as an alternative a mere “ISDS zombie.”
In the fight against antimicrobial resistance, members of the European Parliament’s Environment and Public Health Committee have advocated banning collective and preventive antibiotic treatment of animals, and supported measures to stimulate research into new antibiotics, including longer data protection.
Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said today that two “highly effective” vaccines against Ebola have been developed over the course of 15 months in Russia. The combined vaccine GamEvac-Combi was presented during a briefing, with the two scientists who developed it, who own the intellectual property rights on the vaccines in Russia.
The Serbian government and parliament are currently drafting a new trademark law for the country which is to introduce the trademark opposition system into national IP legislation. Meanwhile, the cabinet of Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic recently appointed Vladimir Maric as the new acting director of Serbia’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
The European Patent Office (EPO) and Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) will cooperate more closely in the area of plant-related patents and plant variety rights, they said on 11 February.
An anti-counterfeiting regulation on a unique identifier for medical products to ensure their authenticity was published today in the European Union.