Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Four developing countries have signed a recently completed international agreement on access to genetic resources and the fair retribution of benefits accrued from those resources. The protocol opened for signature in New York last week and efforts are underway to set up an information clearinghouse.
The Executive Board session of the World Health Organization ended early on Monday after a week of discussions that settled some issues but left some others for the next governing meeting of the organisation in May, with much to do until then. The WHO is facing a significant gap in its budget and a programme of reforms is brewing.
World Health Organization members yesterday struck a compromise allowing a Swiss industry representative to sit on a committee selecting proposals for research and developing financing for neglected diseases, disregarding the fact that he is author of one of the proposals. Special safeguards were added to prevent undue influence, but questions remain for some about a conflict of interest.
With the World Health Organization director general’s term of office ending next year, WHO members today set up a drafting group to try to reconcile divergent views on the process leading to the election. Some countries are in favour of a principle of geographical rotation - citing over 60 years of no representation from their regions, while some other countries claimed rotation could override more important selection criteria such as expertise and experience, and could endanger the organisation’s future.
A top Swiss company executive on pandemic influenza and HIV/AIDS research took the reins of the Geneva-based Medicines for Malaria Venture this week, just weeks after MMV was given international organisation status by the Swiss government.
Opinions were divided in a United Nations consultation yesterday in New York on enhanced cooperation of public policy issues pertaining to the internet, whether two bodies on the issue are needed.
The United Nations climate change conference closed at dawn last Saturday, with a make-do package of decisions advantageously labelled the “Cancun Agreements”. Intellectual property rights have all but disappeared from the texts as Bolivia stood alone in disagreement and was shush-gavelled.
Delegates negotiating early stages of a treaty on traditional cultural expressions this week got down to details of what to protect, from whom and how in late-night drafting sessions at the World Intellectual Property Organization, and found a work plan for the immediate future on genetic resources as well. Meanwhile, indigenous groups continued to raise concerns about the process.
As delegates in Cancun, Mexico, neared the end of their search this week for consensus on how to stop climate change, intellectual property issues were being set aside for later.
Global talks to address climate change being held in Cancun hobbled along last week amid calls for flexibility among parties. Japan declared its opposition to an extension of the Kyoto Protocol setting binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, civil society worried about transparency in the negotiating process, as countries started negotiations on specific texts.
Canada's Parliament has the power to save lives of millions afflicted with HIV around the world if they will act to ease intellectual property-related restrictions on their access to medicines, Canadian civil society groups said today.
The end of the year is bringing many changes in intellectual property-related policy offices in Geneva and the capitals. Some of these changes include top offices at the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Health Organization, South African government, United States government, and a global internet body. Intellectual Property Watch Subscribers can read the details here.