Committee Agrees WIPO Strategic Plan To 2021: Possible Rethink For Policymaking 31/08/2016 by Alexandra Nightingale for Intellectual Property Watch and William New 1 Comment Anticipating a degree of uncertainty ahead for the global economy and intellectual property system, the World Intellectual Property Organization in a new six-year strategic plan looks at likely future policy debates, a focus on infrastructure and training, and possible ways to bring about better negotiations at the UN agency.
Summer Changes Make A Splash In The IP Community 28/07/2016 by Catherine Saez and Alexandra Nightingale for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Over the summer months, people in the intellectual property world continue to circulate. UNITAID has changed heads, and other well-known figures in Geneva set off to new horizons. And no rest it seems for law offices, which maintained their usual level of moves between firms. Here is the latest on People in the IP community.
The “Denial Playbook”: An Original Product Of The Oil Industry 22/07/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments New documents reveal that the oil and tobacco industries took pages from the same book to engineer their decade long campaigns on denying the existence of climate change and smoking-related cancer. The playbook also appears to have originated not with tobacco, but with the oil industry itself, and the two even appeared to share patents.
The Significance Of Uruguay’s Win Over Philip Morris International 21/07/2016 by Alexandra Nightingale for Intellectual Property Watch 6 Comments The tobacco industry’s global efforts to use bilateral and multilateral agreements to challenge the spread of tobacco control measures such as trademark-minimising plain packages were dealt a significant blow last week when the World Bank dispute settlement body dismissed a case brought by Philip Morris against the government of Uruguay. The decision is seen a landmark for those who view the company as using test cases to continually challenge and delay public health protection measures and discourage other countries, particularly those with fewer resources, from strengthening their health regulations. Additionally, the case reasserted that trademarks are subject to government regulations and also illustrated the role that international organisations and actors can play in support of national governments defending their health measures.
UK Government Called To Action To Further Boost IP Enforcement 19/07/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The United Kingdom-based Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG) industry group launched a “manifesto” earlier this month, calling on the government to establish a more effective and comprehensive response to intellectual property crime.
EU Anti-Counterfeiting Rapid Intelligence System: One Database For All Data On IPR Infringement 19/07/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the European Commission Trade Directorate recently launched a new intellectual property enforcement tool that aims to pool together all data relating to IP rights infringement experienced by EU companies into one database to help build prevention strategies. This is one of many new EU initiatives to counter growing IPR infringement and counterfeits.
CISAC: 90 Years In The Service Of Authors And Composers 19/07/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), the world’s leading network of authors’ societies, has published a book looking back at its 90 years in existence. The CISAC Story – 90 Years in the Service of Authors and Creators Worldwide, was distributed in three languages at the Confederation’s General Assembly last month in Paris.
Orphan Drugs Finding Home In Markets: Could Be 20% Of All Sales By 2020 15/07/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments Worldwide sales for orphan drugs are forecast to reach $178 billion by 2020, according to a recent industry report. Moreover, the orphan drug market is expected to grow almost 12 percent per year, a level the broader pharmaceutical market “could only dream about” with its expected annual growth of 5.9 percent, according to Lisa Urquhart, editor of EvaluatePharma Vantage.