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Intellectual Property Watch

Original news and analysis on international IP policy

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Inside Views/Opinions

Express your views and offer your constructive insights on current IP policy debates. Send ideas to editorial@ip-watch.ch

Everything Is Obvious

25/03/2019 by Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments

Ryan Abbott writes: For more than sixty years, “obviousness” has set the bar for patentability.  Under this standard, if a hypothetical “person having ordinary skill in the art” would find an invention obvious in light of existing relevant information, then the invention cannot be patented.  This skilled person is defined as a non-innovative worker with a limited knowledge-base.  The more creative and informed the skilled person, the more likely an invention will be considered obvious.  The standard has evolved since its introduction, and it is now on the verge of an evolutionary leap: Inventive machines are increasingly being used in research, and once the use of such machines becomes standard, the person skilled in the art should be a person using an inventive machine, or just an inventive machine.  Unlike the skilled person, the inventive machine is capable of innovation and considering the entire universe of prior art.  As inventive machines continue to improve, this will increasingly raise the bar to patentability, eventually rendering innovative activities obvious.  The end of obviousness means the end of patents, at least as they are now.

Filed Under: Features, Inside Views, IP Policies, Language, Themes, Venues, Access to Knowledge/ Education, English, Human Rights, Innovation/ R&D, New Technologies, North America, Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets, Regional Policy

Interview With Charles Gore, Medicines Patent Pool Executive Director

22/03/2019 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment

Charles Gore took over the role of Executive Director at the Medicines Patent Pool in July 2018, just after its board decided to greatly expand its mandate into essential medicines. Nine months into his term, IP-Watch’s William New talked with him about his role and how the expansion is going.

Filed Under: Features, Inside Views, IP Policies, Language, Themes, Venues, English, Health & IP, Other International Orgs, Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets, WHO

South Africa Moves Forward With Creator Rights Agenda

21/03/2019 by Intellectual Property Watch 5 Comments

Prof. Sean Flynn writes: The South Africa National Council of Provinces has cleared the Copyright Amendment Bill for a final vote. The bill would adopt an innovative fair use right as well as new rights of creators to receive royalties, partially own commissioned works, protect works through technological protections (with exceptions for fair use), establish of a tribunal for lower cost enforcement and regulate collective management companies. It establishes what is being referred to as a creator rights model for copyright reform including rights to create, own and earn.

Filed Under: Features, Inside Views, IP Policies, Language, Themes, Venues, Access to Knowledge/ Education, Africa, Copyright Policy, English, Regional Policy

Innovation And Regulation Of Gene-Edited Vegetables: An Interview With IP Lawyer Chris Holly

05/03/2019 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment

Chris Holly is a practicing intellectual property lawyer with extensive experience helping clients leverage IP portfolios in the agriculture, food, microbiology and biotechnology industries. Intellectual Property Watch’s David Branigan interviewed Holly to gain his perspective on the technological, regulatory and intellectual property considerations of next generation plant breeding techniques, in particular those that involve gene editing using CRISPR technology.

Filed Under: Features, Inside Views, IP Policies, Language, Themes, Venues, Biodiversity/Genetic Resources/Biotech, English, Environment, Innovation/ R&D, Lobbying, New Technologies, North America, Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets, Regional Policy, Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge

Will US Drug Pricing Politics Change Intimidation Practices Globally?

05/03/2019 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments

Fifa Rahman

Fifa Rahman writes: The global health world, particularly as concerns skyrocketing drug prices and patent abuse, is in a unique space in time. Recently, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has been carrying on as per usual. It has threatened the Malaysian and Colombian governments at numerous junctures to prevent them from issuing compulsory licences – a completely legal mechanism which the US uses regularly – to access generic hepatitis C drugs. The Trump Administration has sent delegations to global health agencies in Geneva to intimidate them into reducing, or hiding, work on TRIPS flexibilities and fairer drug pricing.

Filed Under: Features, Inside Views, IP Policies, Language, Themes, Venues, Asia/Pacific, Bilateral/Regional Negotiations, English, Health & IP, Human Rights, North America, Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets, Regional Policy, WTO/TRIPS

Faced With Unreasonable Medicines Prices, The Netherlands Introduces Pharmacy Exemption In Patent Law

22/02/2019 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment

Ellen ‘t Hoen writes: On 1 February 2019, article 53(3), second sentence of the Dutch Patent Act 1995 came into force introducing a patent exemption for the preparation of medicines in a pharmacy.

Filed Under: Features, Inside Views, IP Policies, Language, Themes, Venues, English, Europe, Health & IP, Innovation/ R&D, Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets, Regional Policy

Pre-Grant Opposition Filed Against Janssen’s Bedaquiline Fumarate Application In India

08/02/2019 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments

Tuberculosis and its variant – Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) – are global public health emergencies. Current treatment regimens are expensive, tedious and prolonged: the overall treatment duration is 20 months or more, requiring daily administration of drugs that are more toxic and less effective than those used to treat drug-susceptible TB. Most of the drugs for treating TB are old and are known to have severe side-effects, writes Sandeep K. Rathod.

Filed Under: Features, Inside Views, IP Policies, Language, Themes, Venues, Asia/Pacific, English, Health & IP, Innovation/ R&D, Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets, Regional Policy

WHO’s Access Roadmap And The Art Of Accommodation Of Pharma Interest

26/01/2019 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment

The Roadmap to access to medicines, vaccines and other health products (Roadmap) to be discussed at this week’s 144th session of WHO’s Executive Board accommodates vital interest of pharmaceutical TNCs on critical issues such as the approach to access, technical assistance on the use of TRIPS flexibilities and access to biosimilars.

Adoption of the Roadmap in its current form very well accommodates the interest of the Pharmaceutical TNCs and therefore one need not expect any proactive steps by WHO towards promoting access after the adoption of the Roadmap.

Filed Under: Features, Inside Views, IP Policies, Language, Themes, Venues, English, Health & IP, Human Rights, Innovation/ R&D, Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets, WHO, WIPO, WTO/TRIPS

US Complaints About Technology Transfer In China: Negotiating The Endgame

24/01/2019 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments

Dean Pinkert writes: The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has been open about its view of the difficulties faced by US companies who claim – generally anonymously – that they have been forced to transfer technology to Chinese entities: “The fact that China systematically implements its technology transfer regime in informal and indirect ways makes it ‘just as effective [as written requirements], but almost impossible to prosecute.’” As I explain in this article, I believe such informality is not merely a barrier to prosecutions; it also presents conceptual challenges for US trade negotiators as they attempt to craft effective means to address the concerns of US companies doing business in China.

Filed Under: Features, Inside Views, IP Policies, Language, Themes, Venues, Asia/Pacific, Bilateral/Regional Negotiations, Enforcement, English, IP Law, Innovation/ R&D, North America, Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets, Regional Policy, Technical Cooperation/ Technology Transfer, WTO/TRIPS

Supporting UHC And Better Explaining IP – The 2019 Pharma Industry Agenda

16/01/2019 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment

In 2019, IFPMA work will continue to focus on constructive engagement in supporting UHC and working with others to strengthen health care systems. The association will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders, particularly multilateral organizations, to better explain the benefits of IP and exchange ideas to address issues of coverage, capacity, affordability and sustainability of healthcare.

Filed Under: Features, Inside Views, IP Policies, Language, Themes, Venues, English, Europe, Health & IP, Innovation/ R&D, Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets, Regional Policy, Technical Cooperation/ Technology Transfer, WHO

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