Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Small farmers around the world are threatened by new free trade agreements, a civil society group has argued. Those agreements go beyond the requirements of agreed international intellectual property rules and jeopardise the ability of small farmers to save, produce, and exchange seeds, the group said.
Constraints on financing, restrictions on services and not so much access to technology emerged as one of the biggest challenges in the innovation, deployment and diffusion of clean energy technologies during an unusual session last week in Geneva which brought together climate scientists and trade policy wonks. Technologists and chemical engineers also came together to discuss how unlocking trade could help clean technologies in the context of the implementation of the Paris agreement on climate change.
As part of a larger report on the G20 top global economies, the World Trade Organization has provided a discussion of policy developments in trade and intellectual property. This includes a look at international policy actions, recent agreements, and national legislation and trends.
The European Union presenting its new Trademark Directive during this week’s meeting of the World Trade Organization intellectual property council heard concerns of possible seizures of generic medicines transiting through Europe. Meanwhile, the new Council chair's attempts at revitalising discussions between member states received general approval. And a new agenda item on e-commerce was launched.
Panellists at a side event this week at the World Trade Organization reminded delegates of the view that patents and a strong innovative environment are key to innovation, and in particular to green technology. A Swiss start-up company developing a…
The agenda of next week’s meeting of the World Trade Organization council on intellectual property will include an item on sustainable resources and environmental technology, and a proposed discussion on electronic commerce. These are in addition to the usual list of agenda items.
"Tobacco-related illness is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced," according to the World Health Organization, and plain packaging of tobacco products can save lives, it said. The theme of this year's no-tobacco day, today, is: Get ready for plain packaging, as the WHO is calling for countries to introduce plain packaging in their territories.
The establishment of the WTO Agreement on TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and the proliferation of plurilateral, bilateral and regional agreements have significantly contributed to the increasing complexities of the intellectual property system. The emergence of new actors, reflecting conflicting expectations and the adoption of new trade agreements that often exceed the standards set by the TRIPS agreement, have resulted in a new density of rules that have further fragmented the international system. These developments have unavoidably called for further analysis by academics and stakeholders.
Chidi Oguamanam writes: The global South is full of significant, diverse biological and genetic resources. It’s also home to most of the world’s indigenous communities. This is why developing countries are sensitive about protecting their genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
Indigenous communities enjoy a close relationship with nature. Genetic resources are central to producing their traditional knowledge. This drives innovations in agriculture, medicines and conservation. But global intellectual property frameworks – the legal mechanisms for securing knowledge ownership – still haven’t taken this reality into account.
After waiting for over a decade, the World Trade Organization is finally close to achieving the first ever amendment to its rule-book, with only a handful of members still needing to formally accept new intellectual property provisions dealing with one aspect of access to medicines.
Two thirds of the membership (108 of the WTO’s present 162 members) have to ratify or “accept” the amendment (on exporting medicines made under compulsory licence) before it can take effect. The number of accepting members is finally approaching 108. This has exposed a discrepancy in the way the European Union’s membership is counted. And that in turn raises questions over when the 108 is actually reached.
Worse, the counting method the EU uses could even prevent some amendments ever taking effect.
Genius, brilliant, generous, wholehearted, warm, kind, funny, original, musician, art lover, brave, restless, these are few of the most suitable and recurrent attributes of Denis Borges Barbosa, who passed away on Saturday, April 2nd. Leading IP professor, researcher and attorney in Brazil, he was also the key international face of Brazilian IP, write Allan Rocha de Souza and Cláudia Chamas.
That the Indian government has been under pressure from the United States to change its patent regime is no secret among those who follow the public discourse on intellectual property rights. Now, a new controversy about India’s alleged private assurance to the US-India Business Council (USIBC) and other lobby groups that it would not invoke compulsory licensing for commercial purposes seeks to add fuel to fiery speculation about a shift in India’s policy on IPR.