UN Human Rights Body Examines WIPO Development Agenda, Tech Transfer, WHO

A high-level task force on the right to development last week released two new reports at the United Nations, the results of technical missions to the World Intellectual Property Organization on its Development Agenda and to the World Health Organization on its strategy on intellectual property.

ICANN Head Sounds Policy Alarm On Rapidly Shrinking Internet Space

WASHINGTON, DC - The internet’s technical governing body plans to make a push to educate the global users of the internet on the network’s latest generation technology known as IPv6, Rod Beckstrom, president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), said this week.

Year Ahead: Key Year For Biodiversity, Environment, Food Security, Traditional Knowledge

Access and benefit sharing will top agendas at several different intergovernmental bodies this year on issues of biodiversity, environment, food security and traditional knowledge, and stakeholders will be watching the movement across fora of emerging models and potential pitfalls from parallel negotiations.

New Parliament Group Monitors EU Trade Pacts’ Impact On Poor’s Medicines Access

BRUSSELS - Trade agreements must not contain clauses on intellectual property rights that could imperil the poor’s access to affordable medicines, a veteran member of the European Parliament (MEP) has said.

Global Anti-Counterfeiting Efforts Set To Rise Further

NEW YORK – The problem of global counterfeiting has not diminished with the new year, experts said here yesterday, and 2010 promises to bring even more rampant intellectual property theft if countries do not do more to stem the problem. Some countries are mobilising to do just that.

WIPO Patent Committee Prepares To Discuss Future Work Programme

Discussions at the World Intellectual Property Organization patent committee this week are focussed on a series of new studies, though one of the more difficult issues on the table - exceptions and limitations to patent law - will not be substantively dealt with until the next meeting in October. Discussions on future work for the committee, with a proposal on the table from Brazil for a new work programme on exceptions and limitations, are soon to begin and are likely to be the most difficult topic of the week.