UKIPO: New Exceptions In UK Copyright Law Boost Flexibility For Users 31/03/2014 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments On 27 March, the United Kingdom introduced new exceptions to its Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 “to make our copyright system better suited to the digital age,” the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has said.
Alternative Therapies, Incentive Models Eyed For Antibiotic Resistance 28/03/2014 by Julia Fraser for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment As bacteria become more and more resistant to existing medicines, product pipelines are drying up. A solution may lie in a forgotten therapy developed in 1917, the use of which has been restricted to certain parts of Eastern Europe ever since the discovery and universal use of antibiotics. But business models and intellectual property regimes need to change to provide incentives for research and development in this area.
Indigenous Peoples Present Their Perspectives On Traditional Knowledge At WIPO 25/03/2014 by Maëli Astruc for Intellectual Property Watch and Julia Fraser for Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments Representatives of indigenous peoples opened a key meeting at the World Intellectual Property Organization with a discussion of the definition of traditional knowledge (TK), the presence of TK in the public domain, and respect for indigenous peoples’ rights under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Analysis Shows Mixed Results On Big Pharma R&D Efforts For TB 24/03/2014 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment In time for World TB Day today, an analysis has been published of research and development being carried out for tuberculosis by the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies.
WIPO Trademark Committee Opens With Firm Positions On Design Treaty 18/03/2014 by Julia Fraser for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment At the outset of this week’s World Intellectual Property Organization trademark committee meeting, several member states cited a pressing need to move forward in preparing recommendations for a treaty on industrial designs. Others maintained firm positions on the unresolved issue of keeping a provision on technical assistance to developing countries as part of the treaty text.
Interview With Hans Hogerzeil: Recognising Good Practices Of Pharma 18/03/2014 by Julia Fraser for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The issue of medicines access for low-income people in developing countries has been of major concern to global health policymakers for years. A key issue is the inability of northern pharmaceutical producers to develop and distribute affordable medicines and recover their research and development costs. As part of the effort to address this, a non-governmental group was formed in coordination with industry and other stakeholders to develop an index to rate companies’ efforts to ameliorate the situation. Julia Fraser for Intellectual Property Watch recently sat down with Hans Hogerzeil, a former senior World Health Organization official and a top strategist for the Access to Medicine Index, to discuss the index’s impact, independence and the future.
EU Parliament To Vote On Compulsory Publishing Of Clinical Trial Data 14/03/2014 by Julia Fraser for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The European Parliament is scheduled to vote on 3 April on amended draft legislation that would oblige pharmaceutical companies to publish all clinical trial data in a publicly accessible database.
WIPO Shows Record Growth Across International IP Filing Systems 13/03/2014 by Maëli Astruc for Intellectual Property Watch and Julia Fraser for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment “Intellectual property, in general, is in a growth mode, and in a growth mode which is considerably in excess of either the national GDP growth rates or the world GDP growth rates,” World Intellectual Property Organisation Director General Francis Gurry said today.
Book Challenges ‘Neoliberal’ Approach In Global Public Health Policy 12/03/2014 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A recent book by a UK journalist and lecturer illustrates that recent reforms in global public health policy have ignored public health needs in favour of market-based ideologies.
Automated Cars – And Regulations – At The Geneva Motor Show 07/03/2014 by Julia Fraser for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Among the Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis in Geneva this week, high-level representatives of the auto industry, the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) discussed issues of safety, data sharing and standardisation.