Shift In Top IP Posts At WHO

From the ip-health listserv Friday, an internal communication from World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan announcing a change in staff responsible for innovation and intellectual property issues. On 1 August, Elil Renganathan of Malaysia, the current director of Public…

Life-Saving Mosquito Nets Subject Of Tiff Over Trade Secrets

COPENHAGEN - While sales of insecticide-treated bed nets have skyrocketed in recent years and boosting their use is among the UN Millennium Development Goals, two producers of the nets have been caught in a rigorous legal case involving trade secrets. Now the English High Court has ruled that one of the companies, Bestnet, has misused the trade secrets of the other company, Vestergaard Frandsen (VF).

ECOSOC Calls For Intensified Efforts On Public Health And Use Of TRIPS Flexibilities

The United Nations Economic and Social Council, a key coordinating body meeting this summer in Geneva, is considering ways to move nations faster toward global public health goals, with a warning from developing countries that intellectual property rights should not interfere with access to medical products and innovation.

Conference May Boost WIPO Mandate On Food Security, Public Health

A conference at the World Intellectual Property Organization exploring and clarifying the connection between its work and several major public policy issues ended Tuesday with a look at public health and food security.

WIPO Looks At Mandate On IP And Climate Change, Access For Reading Impaired

A conference aimed at sketching out ideas for the World Intellectual Property Organization’s involvement in issues of global public policy kicked off Monday with explorations on the link intellectual property and environmental technology and a separate event devoted to access to reading material for the visually impaired.