Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The Kerala province of India earned two geographic indications, or product names associated with a particular place and characteristics, on rice varieties in November 2007. But, more than a year later, the farmers who grow those strains still have yet…
Many least developed countries have slipped further behind the most developed nations in information and communications technology access since 2002, the United Nations reported Monday. Sweden and its northern European neighbours again topped the list of the most connected countries,…
Patent reform, universal health care, and intellectual property rights protection of new health and environmental technologies are critical not only for the biotechnology industry but for improvements in public health, the president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) said Thursday.
By Georg Greve
Interconnectivity, commoditisation and increased reuse and recombination are key trends within the maturing information and communication technologies (ICT) industry that drive innovation and development. Harnessing the innovative and economic potential of the ICT sector depends on a variety of factors, including open innovation models, such as free software.
Gary Locke, the former governor of Washington State, is the latest pick of US President Obama for Commerce Secretary. The US Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby group based in Washington, DC, has reviewed his record on intellectual property. Posted…
That there will be a future for the international Internet Governance Forum seems likely, though the form its future incarnation will take is not. Delegates to an open consultation on internet governance this week began to sort out some base modalities on how to evaluate the progress of the United Nations-led discussion venue, as a deadline approaches to decide whether and how the group will continue.
Should national drug control bodies grant marketing licences to generic medicine companies only if their products do not possibly infringe existing patent rights? Yes, German pharmaceutical company Bayer told the High Court of Delhi last week when the court heard arguments in an ongoing court case on patent linkage.
The number and intensity of debates over the role of intellectual property rights in public health is set to increase in 2009.
New leadership and new mandates for key intergovernmental organisations implemented last year have created opportunity for change. And while old debates over the balance between IP rights and access to health products are not going away, this year will see more exploration at the intergovernmental level of different systems to stimulate innovation.
Capacity to make vaccines needed to respond to pandemic influenza has increased 300 percent, according to collaborative study [pdf] by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) released Tuesday. However, it has…
Key players in the biotechnology industry are leading an effort to obtain global approval processes for generic biological medicines, which experts say could provide cheaper access to costly but widely prescribed and promising treatments.