An Eventful Week For IP Policymaking In The United States 02/10/2010 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The United States’ search for ways to spark its job growth has led to a focus on intellectual property rights, and this week several significant developments boiled over.
First Patent Holder Grants Licences To UNITAID 01/10/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The United States National Institutes of Health has become the first patent holder to join the newly created Medicines Patent Pool, a project of drug purchasing mechanism UNITAID. Public health organisations hailed the move as key step in the right direction but said there is still much work to do.
WIPO Assembly Considers Paths For Possible New Treaties 30/09/2010 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Member governments of the World Intellectual Property Organization this week set in motion negotiations that could lead to international treaties or other instruments on exceptions and limitations to copyright, the protection of traditional knowledge and folklore, and harmonisation of industrial design laws. Negotiations won’t be without difficulty, however.
Study Shows Climate Change Innovation Concentrated In Few Nations 30/09/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The adoption of 1997 landmark environmental agreement the Kyoto Protocol caused a surge in environmental innovation, but the countries which are innovating and the licensees of this technology are limited, finds a newly released study making use of patent data to track where technological responses to climate change are coming from as well as the licensing practices of the technology owners.
Burdened With Brackets, Biodiversity ABS Protocol Needs Political Will To Survive 28/09/2010 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Substantive progress eluded the negotiators of a draft protocol on biodiversity access and benefit sharing last week in Montreal, according to participating sources. The third attempt at finding consensus on key aspects of the text was unsuccessful and negotiations will carry on at the major United Nations meeting on biodiversity next month in Japan.
Echoes Of Global Patent Wars At WIPO Annual General Assembly 27/09/2010 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Echoes of the struggles and advances in patent policy around the world were heard this week in the annual meeting of the member governments of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization. At stake is no less than the future of societies everywhere.
The Realities Of Traditional Knowledge And Patents in India 27/09/2010 by Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments India’s laws on traditional knowledge are yielding interesting positive and negative results, writes Mohan Dewan.
ACTA Negotiators Still Aiming For Agreement By Year’s End 25/09/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Countries negotiating a semi-secret trade agreement against piracy and counterfeiting this week in Tokyo are still aiming to reach agreement by the end of this year, a negotiator told Intellectual Property Watch today. The negotiator also did not reject outright the notion that patents might still be included in the draft treaty text, instead saying it is still a matter for discussion.
Ambassadors Meet Outside WTO To Discuss TRIPS Negotiations 24/09/2010 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments More than a dozen ambassadors to the World Trade Organization met today at the New Zealand mission in Geneva to discuss the state of negotiations related to intellectual property rights and trade.
Civil Society Fights For Participation As ACTA Counter To WIPO Rises 24/09/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A new rival to the World Intellectual Property Organization is being created away from the tempering effect of public scrutiny, which could result in limits on the free movement of knowledge or products subject to IP rights, a civil society representative said yesterday.