South Centre Steps Up Activity On IP, Medicines Access, Trade, Investment And More 23/06/2016 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)The intergovernmental South Centre has raised the level of its activity on issues of relevance to the intellectual property community in recent weeks. The Geneva-based organisation represents the interests of its developing country members. Innovation and IP: Tension between Protection and Access The South Centre recently published Research Paper No. 67: “Innovation and Global Intellectual Property Regulatory Regimes: The Tension between Protection and Access,” authored by Nirmalya Syam and Viviana Munoz Tellez. It states: “The objective of “Innovation and Global Intellectual Property Regulatory Regimes – The Tension between Protection and Access” is to assess the global intellectual property (IP) regimes centred on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as the expansion of the scope of IP regimes through bilateral trade and investment agreements, from a development perspective. It will also focus on African efforts to engage with these regimes, including African proposals for rule-making in policy areas of interest to the region such as protection of biological resources and traditional knowledge and an enlarged scope for geographical indications. The implications of rules in these areas for innovation in the region will be explored. Finally, the paper discusses the arrangements that would provide an appropriate intellectual property regime to complement Africa’s regional integration programmes such as the proposed Continental Free Trade Area and Treaty commitments.” To access the research paper directly, go to this webpage: http://www.southcentre.int/research-paper-67-june-2016/ Improving Access to Medicines: What Needs to Be Done The South Bulletin published this month provides “a summary of the South Centre’s three submissions to the UN Secretary General’s High-level Panel on Access to Medicines on some of the key actions that need to be taken to strengthen the access to medicines for people in developing countries: The Need to Assert the Primacy of the Right to Health over Trade and IP Rules A Binding International Treaty on Medical Product R&D under the Auspices of the UN Limitations of the Paragraph 6 System of the TRIPS Agreement Other articles in this issue include: Super drug-resistant gene raises new health alarm World Economy in Serious Difficulty: Call for Bold Measures The Rise of Investor-State Dispute Settlement in the Extractive Sectors “Free trade” in trouble in the United States South African Minister Rob Davies calls for pro-development approach to IP policy An update on the Green Climate Fund” The Bulletin is available here. Divergences in TPP and Developing Countries on Investment Protection The South Centre recently published Research Paper No. 68: “Approaches to International Investment Protection: Divergent Approaches between the TPPA and Developing Countries’ Model Investment Treaties,” authored by Kinda Mohamadieh and Daniel Uribe. It states: “While the international investment treaty regime is at a conjuncture, States face the challenge of designing reforms that would result in systemic solutions, and not merely cosmetic changes, to the challenges emerging out of the existing regime and the ISDS mechanism it embodies. While many countries are reviewing and introducing changes to their treaty practice, which is often proclaimed as ‘reforms’, countries are taking significantly different steps and approaches in this area. This paper highlights that the vision for the future of the investment protection rules presented by India and Brazil under their new model treaties is substantively and significantly different from those presented under the TPP investment chapter. The latter has been assessed as a model that ‘entrenches rather than reforms’ the existing flawed system.” To access the research paper directly, go to this webpage: http://www.southcentre.int/research-paper-68-june-2016/ Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) On antimicrobial resistance, the South Centre issued a statement saying: “On June 6, ReAct-Action on Antibiotic Resistance in collaboration with the Every Woman Every Child initiative within the office of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General and the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation hosted a briefing on ‘Meeting the Multisectoral Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance’. The briefing aimed to raise the issue of antimicrobial resistance or AMR to the top of the political and global agenda in anticipation of a high-level meeting on this issue during the UN General Assembly in September. Here, speakers and participants spoke of the impact of AMR across sectors including human health, agriculture, and the environment. This event, co-sponsored by the country missions of Sweden, Netherlands, South Africa, Vietnam, Mexico, Argentina, and South Korea, brought together a broad range of stakeholders from high-level government representatives and intergovernmental organizations to private sector and civil society representatives in human and animal health.” UNCTAD In yet another area, the South Centre voiced its view on the upcoming renewal of the mandate of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which has a small program on IP and local innovation in developing countries. It said: “The broad mandate of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) covering trade, development and all inter-related issues must not be restricted or downgraded but instead be revitalised at next month’s UNCTAD-14 conference, developing countries have urged. The views of the developing countries came during the thirtieth special session of the Trade and Development Board (TDB) on Monday,13 June, just ahead of the UNCTAD-14 meeting in Nairobi, Kenya to be held from 17-22 July. The developing countries also voiced concern over the slow pace of negotiations on the draft outcome document for UNCTAD-14, arguing that much more remains to be done, especially on issues of importance to the developing countries.” Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Related William New may be reached at wnew@ip-watch.ch."South Centre Steps Up Activity On IP, Medicines Access, Trade, Investment And More" by Intellectual Property Watch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.