IP World Enters New Year With Major Shift Of People In Pharma, Copyright 22/12/2016 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a 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)As a new year dawns, a lot of movement has been observed in the pharmaceutical industry with new key players taking the lead. Meanwhile, new delegates are covering IP issues in Geneva, and coordination of regional groups at the World Intellectual Property Organization makes its usual yearly shift for 2017. The copyright industry also saw major changes, and law offices have been busy hiring new partners. Governments Erry Wahyu Prasetzo, Third Secretary, is the new representative of Indonesia at the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. Jan Walter, former IP and trade representative of the Czech Republic and coordinator of Central European and Baltic States (CEBS) regional group in WIPO has joined the United Kingdom Permanent Mission in Geneva as a Senior IP Adviser. Jan has experience from public, private and not-for-profit sectors from Prague, London, Geneva and Brussels. Rodrigo Mendes Araújo, First Secretary at the Brazilian mission who follows WIPO is leaving Geneva in January to move to his next post in Beijing. Olivier Martin, economic and development counsellor at the mission of France, following WIPO, has left to work for the CERN. Francis Guénon is filling the position at the mission of France left open by Olivier Martin. Nabi Azami, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Iran, who followed WIPO, has left and is now Counsellor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Teheran. Rotation of WIPO member state group coordinators. The Asia and Pacific Group was coordinated by India, but from January Indonesia will be the group coordinator. The Group of Central European and Baltic States (CEBS) was coordinated by Latvia, the next coordinator will be Georgia. The coordination of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries (GRULAC) also changes as Colombia will be the next GRULAC coordinator. Nigeria also said it will no longer be coordinating the African Group, but the next coordinator has not been decided by the group yet. Group B (all the developed countries) are coordinated by Turkey. After the abrupt resignation of Maria Pallante as the United States Copyright Office Register of Copyrights, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden appointed Karyn Temple Claggett as Acting Register of Copyrights (IPW, Copyright Policy, 24 October 2016). Temple Claggett served since 2013 as Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Policy and International Affairs for the United States Copyright Office. International Organisations Marco Aleman, Acting Director of the WIPO Patent Law Division, had now been appointed by WIPO Director General Francis Gurry as Director of the Patent Law Division. Cristiana Paşca Palmer of Romania has been appointed as Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Palmer succeeds Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias of Brazil. She was Minister of Environment, Waters & Forests of Romania, since 2015 (IPW, Biodiversity/Genetic Resources/Biotech, 2 December 2016). The European Broadcasting Union General Assembly elected nine Executive Board members: Cilla Benkö, Sveriges Radio Ab (Sweden), Petr Dvořák, Ceská Televize (Czech Republic), Petr Fedorov, Channel One Russia (Russia), Rachid Faïçal Laraïchi, Société Nationale de Radio Télévision (Morocco), Remy Pflimlin, France Télévision (France ), Peter Salmon, BBC (United Kingdom), Andrzej Siezieniewski, Polskie Radio SA (Poland), Ulrich Wilhelm, ARD (Germany), and Alexander Wrabetz, Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austria). India is expected to become an Associate Member of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) when the government of India notifies CERN of its final approval of the agreement. According to the CERN, India has been a strong partner in CERN’s scientific activities for over 50 years, and India and CERN signed a Cooperation Agreement in 1991, setting priorities for scientific and technical cooperation, followed by the signature of several Protocols. India has observer status at the CERN Council since 2002. The CERN Council also voted unanimously to admit Slovenia to Associate Membership in the pre-stage to Membership of CERN. Slovenia will join Cyprus and Serbia as an Associate Member State. After a period of five years, the Council will decide on the admission of Slovenia to full Membership, according to the CERN. Lorena Castillo de Varela, First Lady of Panama, decided to renew her commitment as UNAIDS Special Ambassador for AIDS in Latin America, UNAIDS announced. Castillo de Varela has been special ambassador for AIDS for UNAIDS since November 2015. The World Trade Organization appointed two new appellate members of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. Zhao Hong of China and Hyun Chong Kim of Korea have been appointed for four-year terms, beginning 1 December 2016. Private Sector/NGOs/Academia The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) hired US trade negotiator George York as RIAA’s Senior Vice President, International Policy. York has been serving as Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative in the USTR Office of Intellectual Property and Innovation. After 18 years at Public Eye (former Bern Declaration), François Meienberg is sailing to new horizons. Meienberg was in charge of agriculture, biodiversity and intellectual property and will leave Public Eye in the spring. His successor is not yet known. Peter Jaszi, Professor of Law, Faculty Director of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic of the Washington College of Law of the American University, retired on 17 November. Jaszi had a long and profound impact on the intellectual property field, including promotion of the fair use principle in copyright. Richard Bergström has left the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations after 5 years as Director General. The EFPIA appointed Eric Cornut as Interim Director General. Cornut was an independent consultant, and previously Chief Ethics, Compliance and Policy Officer at Novartis. Suerie Moon became the Director of Research of the Global Health Centre at Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. She was Research Director and Co-Chair of the Forum on Global Governance for Health at the Harvard Global Health Institute. She also is Adjunct Lecturer on Global Health in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and has been co-directing the Project on Innovation and Access to Technologies for Sustainable Development, Sustainability Science Program, at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Els Torreele of Belgium was named (IPW, Public Health, 8 December 2016) the new executive director of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) Access Campaign, based in Geneva. She was director of the Access to Medicines and Innovation program at the Open Society Foundations in New York, and will take up the new office in February. The Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (IFPMA)’s Director General, Eduardo Pisani, will be stepping down after 7 years. Pisani is expected to leave the stewardship of the organisation at the end of January (IPW, Public Health, 23 November 2016). Thomas Cueni of Switzerland, Secretary General of Interpharma, the association of the Swiss pharmaceutical research companies, has been named the new Director General of the IFPMA (IPW, Public Health, 2 December 2016). He has a background as an economist, journalist and former diplomat. Mario Ottiglio, former Director of Public Affairs, Communications & Global Health Policy at IFPMA joined High Lantern Group as Managing Director based in Geneva (IPW, Public Health, 1 November 2016), working on public health issues. Olav Stokkmo, a frequent presence at WIPO copyright meetings, stepped down from his position of CEO of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO) in Brussels. He became Special Advisor to IFRRO until the end of 2016, after which date he is expected to retired in his home country, Sweden. Caroline Morgan was elected as IFRRO’s new CEO in November. Morgan is former General Manager at Copyright Agency l Viscopy in Sydney, Australia. The International Publishers Association (IPA) elected Dutch publisher Michiel Kolman from Elsevier as President, to start from 1 January 2017 for a two-year mandate. Kolman is the current IPA Vice President, and Senior Vice President of Global Academic Relations at Elsevier. He follows Richard Charkin of Bloomsbury at the IPA presidency. According to the IPA, “the General Assembly elects one Vice-President for a two-year term, to support the President in her/his work. At the end of her/his term s/he becomes automatically the President for another two-year term.” Mark Whitaker, Partner at Morrison & Foerster, has been named President of the American Intellectual Property Association (AIPLA) for the usual one-year term. According to the AIPLA, the association is governed by a 19-person Board of Directors comprised of officers and board members. Each year, four new board members are elected to serve a three-year term. Newly elected Board of Directors members are: Valerie Calloway from Alltech, Jacques Etkowicz from RatnerPrestia, Jennifer Kovalcik from Stites & Harbison, and Brad Pederson from Patterson Thuente IP. The Licensing Executives Society, USA & Canada (LES) has named Kimberly Chotkowski its new Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 January. She holds degrees in law, business and engineering, is registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office, and lives in Pennsylvania. The US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center announced its 2016 IP Champions, recognised for efforts to promote innovation and protect IP rights: US Senator Orrin Hatch (for public service); the Microsoft “Make What’s Next” Campaign, and Pfizer’s Ibrance Team (for excellence in innovation); National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center for “Operation Apples and Oranges” (for excellence in enforcement); Danny Marti (Office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator) (for IP administration); Barbara Kolm (Austrian Economics Center), the Creative Coalition, and Award-winning actor Richard Kind (for excellence in advocacy); Mark McGrath (lead singer of Sugar Ray), Billy Morrison (guitar player for Billy Idol), and Oscar award-winning producer Bruce Cohen (for excellence in creativity). Tiflonexos (Tiflo Libros), the first digital library for the Spanish-speaking blind created in 1999 in Argentina (IPW, WIPO, 21 November 2016), received the 2016 UNESCO/Emir Jaber Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah Prize for Digital Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. eLife has appointed Paul Shannon as its new Head of Technology to oversee the development of tools and software in support of science communication. Shannon, comes from 7digital where he was involved in exploring new methods of delivering high-quality music to listeners around the world. Gurbaksh Chahal, CEO of Gravity4, a high frequency marketing cloud, has become a Board Advisor at NIN Ventures, a crowdfunded technology venture capital fund. V.i. Laboratories, a leading provider of software usage analytics, announced a change of name: Revulytics. The new brand reflects the company’s growth, and expansion into new markets with new offerings, according to the company press release. Law Offices Arent Fox LLP announced that Jay Deshmukh will be joining the firm as Partner in their intellectual property practice, at the New York office. Deshmukh, who is expecting to be focusing on patent litigation and counseling, in particular for the generic pharmaceutical industry, was a partner at Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP. Seyfarth Shaw LLP announced that Dean Fanelli. and Thomas Haag, co-founders of intellectual property boutique Fanelly Haag PLLC, joined Seyfarth as partners in the litigation department. Also joining Seyfarth from the Fanelly Haag team of lawyers and patent agents are King Lit Wong, Maria Maebius, Parithosh K. Tungaturthi, and Alex Li. Wong joined Seyfartj as senior counsel and Maebius joined as counsel. Two pharma and biotech-focused partners have joined Morrison & Foerster: David Manspeizer, and Greg Chopskie. Manspeizer comes from WilmerHale and formerly served as global IP chief for leading drug company Wyeth. Chopskie comes from Gilead Sciences, where he was associate general counsel for IP. Squire Patton Boggs announced that Monika Kuschewsky is joining as partner in the firm’s global Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Group, and a member of the Intellectual Property & Technology Practice. Kuschewsky will be based in Brussels, and comes from Covington & Burling LLP. Dentons announced that it combined with Costa Rica’s Muñoz Global to create what is said is the first global law firm with offices in Central America. According to Dentons, the combination will enable Muñoz Global’s clients to access the experience of more than 7,600 lawyers, 9,900 timekeepers, and 13,600 people, working from 147 locations in 60 countries. Dentons’ clients will enjoy the benefits of leading lawyers in Central America, they said. The firm also announced that it combined with Australian firm Gadens. Dentons is also expected to launch the Nextlaw Global Public Affairs Network in the first half of 2017. The network is meant to be a worldwide network of public affairs firms, and help clients navigate complex public policy issue. Simmons & Simmons expanded its international intellectual property group in Germany with the addition of Michael Knospe, joining as partner. Knospe is an IP lawyer with a strong focus on trademarks and unfair competition. Olivia Luk Bedi joined Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP as partner in the intellectual property practice. Bedi comes from the boutique intellectual property firm Niro Law, and prior to beginning her legal practice, spent five years as a patent examiner for the US Patent and Trademark Office. Michael Best announced that Joshua Engelkemier has joined its Milwaukee office as a patent scientist in the firm IP Practice Group and Life Sciences Industry Team. Prior to joining Michael Best as a member of the EDGE internship programme, Engelkemier earned his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Image Credits: Flickr – Francistoms 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 Catherine Saez may be reached at csaez@ip-watch.ch."IP World Enters New Year With Major Shift Of People In Pharma, Copyright" by Intellectual Property Watch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.