New Draft Work Programme On GIs At WIPO; Industrial Design Pushed To General Assembly 29/03/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A tentative way to continue conversing about geographical indications (GIs) at the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on trademarks and GIs was tabled by the committee chair today. The suggested approach includes a questionnaire to member states on the different ways GIs are addressed by national and regional systems. Meanwhile, a potential design law treaty was pushed off to the next WIPO General Assembly, held in autumn.
Developing Countries Weigh Restarting Talks For TRIPS Amendment On Biological Resources 29/03/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment NEW DELHI, India — Biopiracy is ongoing in many developing countries, and as long as there are no international obligations for patent applicants to disclose the origin of the genetic resources or traditional knowledge they use, the issue will endure, according to speakers at a recent conference in New Delhi. The broken conversation at the World Trade Organization needs to be rekindled so that an international regime of protection is set up, they said.
WHO Flu Framework Looks At Virus Genetic Information Sharing, Private Sector Contribution 28/03/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments How to deal with genetic information rather than physical samples of pandemic influenza virus continues to be discussed at the World Health Organization. For the moment, only physical samples are part of a framework of access and benefit sharing set up and run by the WHO. This week, the framework advisory group is meeting and according to sources, suggested steps to establish guidance on how to address virus genetic information will be shared by the WHO during the meeting.
Civil Society From 17 European Countries File Patent Opposition On Key Hepatitis C Drug 27/03/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments Public health group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced today that it has joined civil society organisations from 17 countries in Europe in filing a patent challenge at the European Patent Office to Gilead’s patent on sofosbuvir, an important treatment for hepatitis C.
UK Professor Charts Path To Reconciling IP Rights, Farmers’ Rights 27/03/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The role of farmers in agricultural innovation can be perceived in different ways. Proponents of intellectual property rights view farmers mainly as recipients of innovation, while others view farmers as main drivers of innovation. Considering those seemingly contradictory points of views, some measures could help reconcile IP rights and farmers’ rights, a UK professor in international governance has said.
Situation With IP Rights In Russia Continues To Deteriorate 27/03/2017 by Eugene Gerden for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The situation with IP rights in Russia is steadily deteriorating, which is mainly due to the recently imposed restrictions for foreign biopharmaceutical companies to participate in public procurement procedures in Russia, the encouragement of parallel imports, as well as the increased consumption of pirated software, according to recent statements of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and local analysts in the field of IP protection.
Medicines Patent Pool Sublicenses New Antibiotic Candidate To TB Alliance For Development 24/03/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments TB Alliance and the Medicines Patent Pool announced today a licensing agreement for the development of sutezolid, a new antibiotic drug candidate which may be used to treat tuberculosis.
Will Brexit Block The European Unitary Patent? 23/03/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment European Patent Office President Benoît Battistelli today in Brussels expressed confidence that the first European Union unitary patent could be granted by the end of this year despite continued delays in the ratification process.But doubts remain.
What To Watch Out For In The EU-Mercosur FTA Negotiations: Consequences For Access To Medicines 22/03/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 6 Comments As negotiations take place this week, an evaluation of the impact of one of the TRIPS-plus measures of the Mercosur/EU FTA on the prices of medicines in Brazil has been released. Based on the draft of the agreement, by their calculations, an additional USD 444 million would be necessary to be spent by the public health system for the purchase of six medicines alone, write Marcela Fogaça Vieira and Gabriela Costa Chaves.
EPO Official Aggressively Promotes Software Patents At CEBIT Fair 22/03/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment At the world‘s biggest computer fair, the CEBIT in Hannover, Germany today, an official of the European Patent Office promoted patents for computer-implemented inventions (CII), also called software patents by critics. CII continues to grow considerably, according to EPO.