Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Patents and public health are sometimes seen as a mismatch, but three prominent international organisations today stepped up their collaboration on ways to facilitate access to medicines by making a better use of the patent system. Effective, reliable and transparent information on patents is necessary to help decision-makers take the best public health approaches for global health coverage, panellists said.
An influential private sector trademark defender is proposing to the World Intellectual Property Organization to undertake creation of an international “notice and takedown” system for alleged online trademark infringers.
And he told Intellectual Property Watch that this will be followed in a few months by a separate proposal for a “notice-and-trackdown” article requiring internet service providers to divulge information about online counterfeiters so they can be gone after.
Determining the value of patented inventions is akin to a guessing game, said a speaker at the World Intellectual Property Organization yesterday. Companies should try to spread their patents over related technological innovations rather focusing on one patent, hoping it will be “the philosopher’s stone”.
The storm appears to be subsiding for international patent filings as 2010 showed a cautious recovery in growth, the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization said today. After the first-ever drop in applications in 2009, 2010 filings almost returned to their 2008 level. And China holds pole position in growth numbers.
A recent economic survey by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) assessed the expected growth in domestic and international patent filings in 2010 compared to 2009. The highest expected growth rates were reported in Asian countries, with modest and declining growth reported in Europe and the United States respectively.
PARIS - The rise of counterfeiting and global economic difficulties combined to sap resources devoted to intellectual property enforcement, said panellists at an event highlighting the fight against counterfeiting and piracy yesterday, and discussed innovative solutions. Meanwhile a civil society group said enforcement of IP rights is a false solution to substandard medicines.
PARIS - Sustainable development made what some described as a welcome intrusion at the global congress on counterfeiting and piracy during a dedicated session on Wednesday, with discussions on how to conduct enforcement efforts while taking into account developing country specificities.
PARIS - Counterfeiting and piracy are on the pillory at the annual event organised by three intergovernmental agencies fighting intellectual property rights infringement. Much of the emphasis of this year’s event is being placed on the danger to the consumers and the economic consequences of infringement as well as on the necessity of enforcement measures. But some developing country delegates present at the event raised concern that the event might not be taking their concerns sufficiently into account.
For anyone in Egypt in recent months or years, it was impossible to ignore the extraordinary destitution of masses of people living in dusty, stark cement structures everywhere on the edges of Cairo or the choked roads clogged with a far-too-rapidly swollen population. Reports from the ground via digital technologies chronicled events that hit this week, but it might be the digital silence today that seals the change.
CANNES - More help from governments, a hope for new cloud music services and new markets in emerging countries like Brazil. India and China were on the wish list of the big music labels and publishers at this week's annual industry bash in Cannes, France. Technology companies and the newly invited hackers were more concerned with new ways to better access music and connecting artists and fans.
A panoramic view of the IP situation in the Caribbean would present to the observer a carnival of Olympic size replete with politicians, diplomats, rights advocates, consumer groups, law enforcement, and impotent jurists, all gyrating discordantly to the WIPO band while Caribbean citizens look on, or are pulled or shoved in, writes Abiola Inniss.
Incorporating traditional cultural expressions into an intellectual property system will be an uphill battle, warned a panellist at a recent side event at the World Intellectual Property Organization. But, argued another, it could be one of the best ways for indigenous communities to benefit from their knowledge.