WIPO Patent Law Committee: New Health Proposal, Tech Transfer Tensions

World Intellectual Property Organization members this week are engaged in substantive discussions on patent policy, including a first look at a developing country proposal on public health, a surprising debate over technology transfer, and details of a questionnaire on exceptions and limitations to patents. Also responses to first feedback on a new proposal on patent quality are expected to emerge shortly.

US ITC Report On China Piracy Shows Billions In Losses: Senators Demand Action

China's violations of United States intellectual property rights costs the US tens of billions of dollars in economic activity and millions of jobs, according to a report released today from the US International Trade Commission.

Bill Gates Calls For “Vaccine Decade;” Explains How Patent System Drives Public Health Aid

Microsoft legend Bill Gates is impassioned about helping to save lives as head of a large-scale foundation. Today, he explained to Intellectual Property Watch how intellectual property rights help drive that process forward and make it sustainable.

Chan: WHO Embarking On “Most Extensive” Reforms In Its History

World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan today presented her broad vision of a reformed WHO at the opening of the annual assembly of the organisation, and said the WHO was clear of suspicion of alleged pharmaceutical industry influence on the management of the H1N1 pandemic.

WIPO Goes To Bat For Trademark Owners At ICANN

The World Intellectual Property Organization has urged the organisation responsible for the internet domain name system to step back from revising its procedures for judging disputes about cybersquatting. WIPO said a 6 May letter that ICANN has not sufficiently taken trademark owners' concerns into account.

World Information Society Summit Assessment: ICT Services Deemed Less Costly

More than five years since the last UN-led World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and less than five years before the 2015 target date of the Millennium Development Goals, experts and representatives of needy countries are in Geneva to assess how it is going. One thing they are being told: the price of information and communications technology services has dropped in the past two years.