Original news and analysis on international IP policy
Harmonisation of Africa’s seed laws: death knell for African seed systems The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has released its new report titled, ‘Harmonisation of Africa’s seed laws: a recipe for disaster- Players, motives and dynamics”. The report shows how…
The Creation of Unitary Patent Protection in the European Union
Paris, 29-30 November 2012
Maison de la Recherche
54, rue de Varenne
75007 Paris
Find here (http://bit.ly/Vbb2CB) more information about the conference.
After more than 30 years of negotiations, 25 of 27 Member States reached a conclusion on the future Unitary Patent System. The central aim of the two draft Regulations on the creation of unitary patent protection and on the applicable translation arrangements is to reduce the costs of patent protection and translation fees in the EU. The European Council on 28-29 June 2012 agreed to split the seat of the EU Patent Court between Paris, London and Munich. The Council’s suggestion to delete Articles 6-8 of the draft Regulation on the creation of the unitary patent provoked strong criticism in the European Parliament which postponed the vote on the proposal scheduled for 4 July 2012. A conference organised by the Academy of European Law (ERA) in cooperation with Queen Mary University of London in Paris on 29-30 November 2012 will offer a platform for discussion on the latest proposals which are now being discussed within the European Parliament.
UNITAID, an alternative funding mechanism for pharmaceuticals to the poor, said today that its work has helped develop new ways to treat children infected with HIV where there was previously little commercial incentive. The statement alongside the World AIDS Day announcement that the number of newly infected children continues to decline. UNITAID called for the international community to help children already living with the disease.
Four of the world's most populous nations are in Southeast Asia and with roughly two-thirds of its population lacking access to medicines, the region holds promise for the cheaper generic drugs. Already, observers are taking note of how the region is changing the dynamics of the global business.
The European Commission and African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) yesterday signed a cooperation agreement on the protection of traditional agricultural products from specific geographical locations or with specific characteristics.
David Kappos, the director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), will leave at the end of January, a USPTO spokesperson confirmed today.
World Health Organization member states and official non-governmental observers will gather at the WHO headquarters this week for an open-ended meeting to analyse the feasibility of new models for financing research and development for diseases lacking sufficient market incentives and public policies.
After a long week of discussions, delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization last night adopted a working draft text that could become a treaty or other instrument providing copyright exceptions for visually impaired people, and agreed to send the text to the WIPO extraordinary General Assembly next month.
All substantive documents filed for the UN-led World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) have been made public, many of them for the first time.
Negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization on the draft text of a treaty on copyright exceptions to benefit visually impaired persons are heading into the final evening of a weeklong committee meeting. Negotiators have made several modifications to the text since yesterday, and work is continuing.