Life-Saving Mosquito Nets Subject Of Tiff Over Trade Secrets 17/07/2009 by Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment COPENHAGEN – While sales of insecticide-treated bed nets have skyrocketed in recent years and boosting their use is among the UN Millennium Development Goals, two producers of the nets have been caught in a rigorous legal case involving trade secrets. Now the English High Court has ruled that one of the companies, Bestnet, has misused the trade secrets of the other company, Vestergaard Frandsen (VF).
ECOSOC Calls For Intensified Efforts On Public Health And Use Of TRIPS Flexibilities 16/07/2009 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments The United Nations Economic and Social Council, a key coordinating body meeting this summer in Geneva, is considering ways to move nations faster toward global public health goals, with a warning from developing countries that intellectual property rights should not interfere with access to medical products and innovation.
Conference May Boost WIPO Mandate On Food Security, Public Health 15/07/2009 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch and William New 1 Comment A conference at the World Intellectual Property Organization exploring and clarifying the connection between its work and several major public policy issues ended Tuesday with a look at public health and food security.
WIPO Looks At Mandate On IP And Climate Change, Access For Reading Impaired 14/07/2009 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch and William New Leave a Comment A conference aimed at sketching out ideas for the World Intellectual Property Organization’s involvement in issues of global public policy kicked off Monday with explorations on the link intellectual property and environmental technology and a separate event devoted to access to reading material for the visually impaired.
Interview With David Lammy, UK Minister of Intellectual Property 13/07/2009 by Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments In a short videocast, Lammy offers his views on global public policy, patent backlogs, patent pools and the role of WIPO.
How To Avert The Coming Drug Access Crisis 10/07/2009 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments Interview With Ellen ‘t Hoen, Senior IP Advisor At UNITAID, author of “The Global Politics of Pharmaceutical Monopoly Power.”
G8: Amid Talks Of Climate, Economy, Food And Health Lies IP & Innovation 09/07/2009 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments Leaders of the seven biggest economies and Russia (G8) at their annual summit this week in L’Aquila, Italy have made very cautious commitments with regard to the top issue, climate change, but views on intellectual property rights enforcement began to become clear on the second day. The summit so far has addressed issues related to trade, development, terrorism, and also innovation and IP. Statements in the leaders’ Wednesday declaration with regard to intellectual property called for a firm push for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which is unchanged from the past. But the G8 IP Expert Group (IPEG) on Thursday published the results of its discussion in which they went into more detail on some issues.
WCO Kills “SECURE” Group, But Creates Health Enforcement Mandate 09/07/2009 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The World Customs Organization at its annual assembly in late June replaced a controversial group on counterfeiting and piracy with a softer dialogue mechanism that may defuse earlier concerns of potential overreaching on intellectual property infringement by customs officials. But it added a new mandate on health to a separate committee on enforcement that could raise new concerns.
EU Finds Anti-Competitive Abuse Of Pharmaceutical Patents, Launches Antitrust Action 08/07/2009 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch 5 Comments Pharmaceutical companies are manipulating the intellectual property rights system and are “actively trying to delay the entry of generic medicines onto their markets,” a top EU official said of an EU inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector released Wednesday. As a result, there has been a decline in the number of innovative medicines getting to the market, it says.
Kenyan AIDS Patients Seek To Overturn Anti-Counterfeiting Law As Unconstitutional 07/07/2009 by Nicholas Wadhams for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments NAIROBI – Three HIV/AIDS patients in Kenya announced Tuesday they will petition the country’s Constitutional Court to declare a new anti-counterfeiting act illegal because it could deny them access to generic medicines. The move, which has the support of public health groups across the country, seeks to have the 2008 Anti-Counterfeiting Act made unconstitutional on the grounds that it could rob them of their right to life.