Original news and analysis on international IP policy
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Procedural questions could kill a proposed European Union directive aimed at fighting theft of products, patents and copyrights, after the Dutch Parliament raised jurisdictional objections last week. At issue is the planned EU…
In a new European Union communication to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the ongoing agriculture negotiations, the EU has moved its call for higher intellectual property rights protection for product names deriving from geographical locations to the top of…
Brazil has arguably the earth’s richest source of biological diversity, and it is fighting to get help at the international level to protect those natural resources from what it says is unfair exploitation through patents by companies and others in…
Debates over the intellectual property system, access to knowledge, and free and open source software are raging worldwide, but perhaps nowhere so much as in Brazil. And in that country, one forum for debate and analysis that stands out is…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch The French Senate on 10 May approved legislation aimed at aligning the country’s intellectual property law with the European Union Copyright Directive. The Senate package differs in several key respects from the one…
The European Patent Office (EPO) recently completed the first phase of a “scenario for the future” project that will analyse the future of the intellectual property system with a 2020 horizon and try to determine the implications for Europe in…
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…
By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch A German scientist who would like to read an online book owned by another department of his university soon may have to travel to the department and read it on site instead if…
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…
By Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch Editor’s Note: The National Assembly adopted the legislation on 21 March by a vote of 286 in favour and 193 against. It will now go to the Senate in May, according to reports.…
By Martin Vaughan for Intellectual Property Watch WASHINGTON, DC – Public health activists are condemning recent terms agreed to by Colombia, Peru and Central American countries in bilateral trade negotiations with the United States, that bind those countries to offer…