Category Regional Policy

Groups Target EU-Mercosur FTA To Advance Access To Health In Trade Deals

AIDS activists, health activists and civil society organizations in Brazil and Argentina are pushing back against the negative effects of the planned free trade agreement between the Mercosur countries and the European Union. The EU-Mercosur negotiations might be the best chance as of now to advance an intellectual property agenda that is more favourable to access to health, says Pedro Villardi, coordinator on IP policy issues at the Associação Brasiliera Interdisciplinar de Aids Observatorio National de Politicas de Aids (ABIA).

Trump Declares Intent To Stop Pharma Companies From ‘Gaming’ Patent System

US President Trump today declared in a White House speech his intent to "take steps" to lower drug prices by stopping "gaming of regulatory and patent processes by drug makers to unfairly protect monopolies," as well as increasing price transparency and promoting biosimilars and generics. But to do this, his administration will take on what it sees as "freeloading" on US innovation by foreign governments, and addressing "unfair" intellectual property and market access policies in trade agreements.

Brazilian Superior Court Of Justice Stops Patent Term Extension Attempts

Pedro Marcos Nunes Barbosa writes: In April 2018, the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice (STJ) ruled on a controversial patent term extension scheme, for the third time since Brazil adopted TRIPS compliant legislation in 1996. The first ruling on this topic, upheld by the STJ, was decided, unanimously, in the year 2009 (docket REsp 960.728, Justice Andrighi). In that case, a famous agrochemical multinational company sought an exotic interpretation of the impacts brought by the minimum deadline granted to a patent, since the WTO’s annex treaty imposed the uniform extension of 20 years. In other words, although the agrochemical company had obtained its exclusivity right in a pre-TRIPS context (where Brazilian Law guaranteed a 15 years property right), but unsatisfied, after the Agreement was implemented, the plaintiff requested a judicial pass for a five year extra period of competition absence.

Study Finds Rise In Use Of India’s Section 3(d) Against Pharma Primary Patents

Access to affordable medicines is one of the most pressing policy issues globally. India has played a prominent role as “pharmacy of the developing world” with its generic medicine industry; however, the interpretation and implementation of a particular section of the law can significantly affect this role, according to a recent study.

Collective Efforts By Civil Society Groups Bar The Way To Hepatitis C Patents

Many hold the view that Gilead’s revolutionary treatment against hepatitis C (sofosbuvir) marked the beginning of a shift in position toward the high prices of medicines, as high-income countries were also faced with an untenable burden to their health systems. In a number of lower and middle-income countries, civil society organised itself to increase access to sofosbuvir for millions in need.

US To Weaken Post-Grant Patent Reviews

Government agencies do not ordinarily relinquish power easily, or without a struggle. But these are not ordinary times in the USA. Trump appointees have pushed a variety of federal agencies – including Interior, EPA, and HUD – to surrender much of their powers. Yesterday, the USPTO joined that list, when it announced proposed new regulations that would weaken the agency’s review of existing patents.

EU-US Comparison & Guide On Copyright Link Liability – An Update

Ed Klaris and Alexia Bedat write: An update to our article reviewing US and European law/recent developments in link liability in both the copyright and defamation contexts and providing a checklist of questions an attorney (or editor) ought to ask before deciding, prepublication, whether a proposed link may lead to liability in the US and/or the EU. Updates include the recent Goldman v. Breitbart decision in which a Federal Judge concluded that embedding a Tweet can be copyright infringement.

Truvada Case Shows Civil Society’s Success With Pre-Grant Opposition

The example of Gilead antiretroviral Truvada in Argentina and Brazil shows how civil society efforts to use patent opposition to patents it felt were unjustified were rewarded by patent withdrawal and rejection, even if the situation in Brazil might not be entirely settled.

What You Can Learn From The Licensing Execs At The LESI Annual Conference 2018

“Strong IP Drives the Bottom Line”: Licensing executives, technology transfer officers and attorneys from all over the world met under this theme at the annual conference of the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI) in San Diego from April 30 to May 1, 2018.

Each year, the LESI annual conference brings together the strategists, pioneers and deal makers of the world to exchange about the hot topics in licensing, technology transfer and the business of IP. Bastian July of GoodIP reports on what you can learn from the keynote speeches and workshops he attended.

US State-By-State Analysis Shows Benefits Of Funding Global Health Research

In the current atmosphere in the United States of funding cuts for global health threats like malaria and HIV/AIDS by the Trump Administration, a new state-by-state analysis claims to show its profound implications for research and jobs across the country.