Original news and analysis on international IP policy
PARIS –Life sciences stakeholders at a recent conference explored matters associated with market access in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and in the Middle East and North Africa regions.
Local production of medicines in developing countries is key to advancing universal health coverage, but other factors need to be considered, such as the involvement of all stakeholders and policy coherence in governments, according to speakers attending the World Investment Forum this week. Several speakers called for a paradigm shift in global health.
The entry into force of an international treaty facilitating access to genetic resources and ensuring the fair sharing of potential commercial benefits has prompted the applicability of a European Union regulation relating to the treaty. This led a researcher to call on the treaty members to ensure its implementation protects the rights of indigenous and local communities.
The Nagoya Protocol, a treaty expected to ensure greater access to genetic resources and a mandatory fair benefit-sharing of the benefits that could be derived from those resources, will enter into force on 12 October, almost four years after it was agreed.
What is a mandatory licence? Mandatory licenses are a legal remedy within the intellectual property flexibilities provided by the World Trade Organization allowing a government to grant permission to third parties to produce a patented product or use a patented process without the consent of the patentee, in order to address a priority status for the country.
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.
Recent months have seen a few interesting intellectual property symposia in the Caribbean, in particular the WIPO–JIPO Regional Conference on IP and creative industries which was held in Jamaica from February 10-12 2014. It is quite interesting that in spite of the intention that it should be regional as indicated in the title of the conference, there seems to have been little participation from the fifteen member countries of Caricom and that most of the sessions focused on Jamaica and its situation, perhaps a natural outcome of the WIPO–JIPO collaboration. Progressive Caribbean intellectuals in the area of intellectual property were also notably absent from the forum, writes Abiola Inniss.
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.
LAUSANNE - Community-driven innovation and technologies could be a solution for developing essential technologies to achieve sustainable development, according to a range of expert panels at a recent event. And in some cases, they already are.
LYON, France - At the Biovision life science forum looking into translating innovation into health-related solutions last week, a panel of speakers shared their experience about the global access to vaccines. Although vaccination coverage is on the rise and intellectual property has not been a major concern in the past decade for vaccines, patents may well become a barrier in the future, panellists said.