About Us Contact — Mission — Funding — Governance CONTACT Intellectual Property Watch CP 2100 1-5, route des Morillons 1211 Geneva 2 Switzerland Phone: +41 (0)22 791 67 16 Fax: +41 (0)22 791 66 35 Email: info@ip-watch.org MISSION Intellectual Property Watch is a non-profit independent news service that provides professional coverage of global policymaking on intellectual property and innovation. On 25 March 2019, IP-Watch announced a one year pause on reporting services as it embarks on a transition phase to devise new strategies for future work. FUNDING Intellectual Property Watch is by grants from private philanthropic foundations and governments, and through income from subscriptions and advertising. Editorial decisions are made independently from funding sources. Intellectual Property Watch has received funding from the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Camino Stiftung, the Perls Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Swiss Agency for Economic Cooperation and Development (SECO), International Development Research Centre (Canadian government), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (German government), Ford Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Loterie Romande, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and Rockefeller Foundation. GOVERNANCE Based in Geneva, Intellectual Property Watch was established in 2004 as a non-profit association under Swiss law. In 2019, the legal name of the association was changed to Global Policy Reporting and the work of Intellectual Property Watch is now a project housed within that organisation. Global Policy Reporting is overseen by a Board of Directors. Board members serve in a personal and voluntary capacity for 2 year, renewable terms. Board of Directors Dr. Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Chair and Founder (Australia) Carolyn is a Senior Researcher at the Global Economic Governance Programme at the University of Oxford and a Visiting Fellow at the Graduate Institute’s Global Governance Centre in Geneva. She has worked and published on issues of sustainable development, trade and intellectual property for a range of non-governmental and international organizations. Her scholarly books include WIPO: A Reference Guide (Edward Elgar Press), The Implementation Game (on the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement in developing countries) (Oxford University Press) and Making Global Trade Governance Work for Development (Cambridge University Press). She was previously Assistant Director of the Rockefeller Foundation responsible for grant making in the area of global economic policy and sustainable development. Carolyn holds a DPhil (Oxon) and M.A. (SAIS) in International Relations. Dr. Thomas Cottier (Switzerland) Thomas, former Managing Director of the World Trade Institute, is Professor Emeritus of European and International Economic Law at the University of Bern and adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottawa. He published widely in the field of international economic law, with a particular focus on constitutional theory and intellectual property. He held several positions in the Swiss External Economic Affairs Department and was the Deputy-Director General of the Swiss Intellectual Property Office. Prof. Cottier has a long-standing involvement in GATT / WTO activities. He served on the Swiss negotiating team of the Uruguay Round from 1986 to 1993, first as Chief negotiator on dispute settlement and subsidies for Switzerland and subsequently as Chief negotiator on TRIPs. He chaired the EFTA negotiating committee on IPRs in EEA negotiations. He has served as a member or chair of several GATT and WTO panels and recently on a high level panel reviewing the International Health Regulations of the World Health Organization. Dr. Bruno Lanvin (France) Bruno is the Executive Director of INSEAD’s Global Indices, comprising the Networked Readiness Index of the Global Information Technology Report (GITR), the Global Innovation Index (GII), and the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI). Before joining INSEAD, he worked ten years for the World Bank, where he was inter alia Senior Advisor for E-strategies, Regional Coordinator (Europe and Central Asia) for ICT and e-government issues, and Chairman of the Bank’s e‐Thematic Group. Before this, he held senior positions at the United Nations in New York and Geneva. Dr Lanvin holds a BA in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Valenciennes (France), an MBA from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in Paris, and a PhD in Economics from the University of Paris I (La Sorbonne) in France. He is also an INSEAD alumnus (IDP-C). A frequent speaker at high‐level meetings, he advises a number of global companies and governments and has been a member of numerous boards, including those of IDA and Govtech (Singapore) and ICANN. Dr. Ruth Okediji (US) Ruth is the Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Director at the Harvard University Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. She has written and published extensively about intellectual property regulation, and the relationship between developed and developing countries in the international intellectual property system. She previously taught at the University of Minnesota where she held the William L. Prosser Professorship in Law and was named a Distinguished McKnight University Professor. She is a graduate of the University of Jos and Harvard Law School. Ms. María Julia Oliva (Argentina) Ms. María Julia Oliva is Senior Adviser for Access and Benefit Sharing at the Union for Ethical BioTrade. Previously, she was Senior Programme Officer for Trade, Environment and Natural Resources at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). Julia also worked as a legal consultant for the UNCTAD BioTrade Facilitation Programme and served as the Director of the Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development Project at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). She is a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law and a Research Associate at IQSensanto. Julia earned an LLM Degree in Environmental Law from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College and a law degree at the University of Mendoza in Argentina. Dr. Susan K. Sell (US) Susan is currently Professor at the School of Regulation and Global Governance, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. She is Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University, Washington, DC, and past Director of the Institute for Global and International Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs. She has published widely on the politics and history of international policy debates on intellectual property, trade and investment. —————————————————————– Intellectual Property Watch also benefits from the advice and support of informal advisers, including leading international authorities on intellectual property, sustainable development, science and technology, and transparency and accountability in global governance. STAFF Director/Editor-in-Chief: Mr. William E. New (william.new@gmail.com) William New has been on the reporting forefront of most major international intellectual property, technology, and health policy developments for well over a decade. William served as Intellectual Property Watch Director and Editor-in-Chief from January 2005 until April 2019, with primary responsibility for the writing, editing, publishing, management, and finances of the organisation. From 2018 to April 2019, he was also Editor-in-Chief of the newly launched Health Policy Watch. During his tenure as Director, IPW published over 7,200 original articles on the full array of topics at the intersection of IP policy and global public policy debates. IP-Watch’s readership expanded to include policy leaders and influencers from around the globe and a diversity of stakeholder groups. IPW achieved nearly 29,000 followers on Twitter, some 10,000 Facebook followers, and email subscribers of nearly 15,000 readers. William is now a Visiting Fellow at the Yale University Law School Information Society Project, and a consultant for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), based in New York. Earlier in his career, he was a Senior Writer and Editor for the National Journal Group (publishing in National Journal magazine, CongressDaily and Technology Daily) in Washington, and a Senior Reporter at Washington-based Inside U.S. Trade and Managing Editor of Americas Trade. William is an accredited journalist at the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, and a member of the Swiss press association Impressum, the Club de la Presse Suisse, and the Association of Correspondents Accredited to the United Nations (ACANU) in Geneva. From 2010 to 2011, William served as Secretary of ACANU. Expert appearances on television and radio include CNBC, National Public Radio, and C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. William regularly participates on panels such as at the OECD, European Patent Office, the Library of Alexandria, Egypt, and in the field of access to knowledge, and also provides field training in policy communications. He regularly chairs the annual European IP Law Summit, and other private-sector events. He also has been a contributor to Oxford Analytica. William holds a Master’s degree in Latin American Economics and Political Science and an MBA in International Management and Marketing from the University of New Mexico, as well as a BA in English from Oberlin College. He is fluent in Spanish, has working French and some German. During his career, William has covered in great depth developments at United Nations bodies such as the World Intellectual Property Organization, World Health Organization, International Telecommunication Union, and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as well as other international organisations such as the World Trade Organization, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Hague Conference on Private International Law, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Coverage also includes a full range of regional and national bodies worldwide. William also has closely reported on the activities of the US Congress and key US government agencies, including for CongressDaily, and has analysed and written about numerous legal decisions. While at National Journal, he worked briefly as an editor for a former National Journal project called UN Wire, an online publication on the United Nations, before moving to technology and congressional coverage. William’s coverage has focused on global intellectual property concerns in areas such as international trade, public health, and the promulgation and enforcement of copyright, patent and trademark laws and agreements. He has closely tracked free trade negotiations at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels, including North American and European bilateral deals, reaching back to the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and WTO negotiations. At the WTO, issues also include enforcement and updating of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and other agreements, accessions and dispute settlement cases. William has also followed intellectual property issues in the context of debates on information and communications technology including global internet governance, open source, digital rights management, and internet domain names. His coverage of science issues has spanned research and development, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and open standards. Earlier in his career, William was at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, where he managed a North American Free Trade Agreement partnership programme with universities in Canada (Carleton) and Mexico (UNAM), and conducted outreach and marketing for the Georgetown University Center for Latin American Studies. Prior to that he spent six months on a fellowship in Guatemala, operating an aid project in the highlands to help the Ixil and Quiché people rebuild their communities, and studied two Mayan dialects for nearly two years. Senior Writer: Ms Catherine Saez (catherine@mailfence.org) Catherine Saez joined Intellectual Property Watch in June 2006, and was a Senior Reporter until March 2019. She is responsible for reporting and writing stories on a variety of topics and is now a freelance reporter for Health Policy Watch. During her time at IP-Watch, Catherine reported regularly on intellectual property policymaking, in particular following the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the World Health Organization. She also covered the Convention on Biological Diversity, and notably the negotiations leading to the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing. She also actively followed the discussions of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, as well as activities at the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. In addition, she covered developments in intellectual property in the area of biotechnology, geographical indications, and other related issues in and outside of Geneva. Catherine, a native of France, holds a masters’ degree in journalism from the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme in Paris, an administrative degree from the Ecole Nationale de Commerce in Paris, as well as a certificate of Proficiency in English from Cambridge University. She also completed a small business management course at Scarlett Oaks Career Campus in Cincinnati (United States), where she spent three years and got involved in many community projects. She is currently learning Spanish. Catherine also was a press correspondent for 7 years for a local newspaper. Catherine is an accredited journalist at the World Trade Organization and the United Nations in Geneva, and a member of the Swiss press association Impressum. Webmaster: Mr Claude Vedovini (webmaster@ip-watch.ch) The ongoing development and the maintenance of the Intellectual Property Watch website was handled by Claude Vedovini, an external consultant who can be found at vedovini.net. Contributing Writers To conduct its reporting activities, Intellectual Property Watch forged partnerships with a network of freelance journalists and outside contributors, particularly at the regional level. Recent Contributing Writers: Jaroslaw Adamowski (Poland) Tatum Anderson (UK) Patralekha Chatterjee (India) Linda Daniels (South Africa) Monika Ermert (Germany) Bruce Gain (France) Eugene Gerden (Russia) Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen (Denmark) Peter Kenny (Switzerland) Mingjiang Liu (China) Munyaradzi Makoni (South Africa) Hillary Muheebwa (Uganda) Fredrick Nzwili (Kenya) Jackie Opara (Nigeria) Steven Seidenberg (US) Dugie Standeford (UK) Sinfah Tunsarawuth (Thailand) Justus Wanzala (Kenya) Maina Waruru (Kenya) Translators In the past, Intellectual Property Watch established a network of translators currently in French and Spanish. Some of our past translators: French: Vanja Guérin Griselda Jung Marisa Marolda Fanny Mourguet Line-Marie Notter Véronique Sauron Aurélie Winter Spanish: Giselle Martinez-Robá Fernanda Nieto Femenia Analin Pedroni Arabic: Mouhamed Fadal Mbacké Chinese: Yujun Lao Internships / Researchers Intellectual Property Watch frequently offers internships and research opportunities for individuals interested in independent journalism and intellectual property policymaking. In the past, many interns and researchers have come from Switzerland and the United States, as well as Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Kenya, Mauritius, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, and the UK. There are currently no paid positions available, but interested candidates may contact info [at] ip-watch [dot] ch. REPORTING SERVICES Intellectual Property Watch’s reporting is available in online format: Online (ISSN 1661-7355): news stories and features are regularly posted in a dynamic weblog format and archived on the Intellectual Property Watch website. Readers can keep up-to-date via email notifications, RSS feed, Facebook or Twitter. Monthly (ISSN 1661-1747): In addition, a 16-page monthly edition was produced from November 2004 to January 2011, which included a selection of news stories, features, briefs and news about people in the IP community. The monthly is online with a searchable archive. Limited past editions are available in print. Intellectual Property Watch and IP Watch are registered trademarks.