Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The intergovernmental Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, France, has published a freely available report on exceptions and limitations to copyright. The report comes as a contribution to the ongoing process of reforming European copyright rules.
MONTREUX -- The legal profession is experiencing a “radical change” due to technology, a globally known author told the recent European IP Law Summit in Montreux, Switzerland. Technology has become “affordable” and professions “unaffordable” in a technology-based internet society, he said. Separately, a Belgian appeals court judge laid out details on the Unified Patent Court of Europe.
An African medicines agency, the continent’s first super-regulator, could be approved as soon as next year.
The European Patent Office today released a new policy brief on climate change mitigation technologies, with a focus on renewable energy technologies, which are on the rise.
The Canadian Supreme Court today upheld a pharmaceutical industry appeal against a tool used in certain cases to overturn patents on products that could be seen as not meriting a patent monopoly. The ruling could effectively block a generic version of a patented drug from being on the market.
NAIROBI, Kenya - A generic version of dolutegravir (DTG), the drug of choice for the last two years for people living with HIV in high-income countries, is now available in Africa. On 28 June, the government of Kenya and drug pricing and innovation mechanism Unitaid unveiled the new first-line drug in an effort to accelerate access to better antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for her people living with HIV. It becomes the first country in Africa to introduce the generic version of drug.
The European Patent Office today issued a clarification about the patenting of plant and animal products, putting it in line with a European Commission clarification that such products obtained through a biological breeding process should not be patentable.
When the US Supreme Court issued its decision in Matal v. Tam, trademark applicants celebrated, hailing it as a victory for free speech and trademark rights. But some trademark owners will become very unhappy about the ramifications of the Court’s 19 June ruling.
A new book launched this week in Geneva offers a unique compilation of the challenges and promises of the protection of geographical indications (GIs) with a particular focus on countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
In a decision today, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg put an end to a complaint by Novartis Europharm Ltd against the European Commission over the terms for data exclusivity (C-629/15 P). Novartis had appealed an earlier decision by the European Court (the first instance) which had rejected the claims by the pharmaceutical company that it should be granted additional data exclusivity for Aclasta, developed from Novartis' older drug Zometa. No way, the Court of Justice said today, upholding the judgment by the lower court that had found that Novartis' interpretation of the rules would effectively allow the extension of data exclusivity for a drug forever.
Just before the upcoming elections in September, the German government seems eager to push through legislation to rein in internet hate speech, fake news, and also legalise state hacks and police searches of computers and mobile phones against suspects of all kinds. Even at the United Nations and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) level the recent initiatives in Germany have resulted in some raised eyebrows. The draft hate speech law has also “made it to the alert list of the Council of Europe Platform to promote the protection of journalism.”
European Patent Office employees, fed up with a series of reforms proposed by President Benoît Battistelli, have called “Respect Staff” strikes on 30 June and 3 July in all European Patent Office locations - Munich, The Hague, Berlin and Vienna.