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).
US Measures To Strengthen Trade Enforcement 16/07/2009 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk on Thursday announced new measures to strengthen the enforcement of the country’s trade rights seen as a key part of US economic recovery and growth strategy. “Our new approach to enforcement is simple,” Kirk said in a statement, available here. “We will deploy our resources more effectively to identify […]
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.
Double Serving In Geneva: McDonald’s’ IP Tax Move 16/07/2009 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment McDonald’s is shifting its European headquarters to Geneva in an apparent attempt to avoid new tax rules in the United Kingdom that would result in double taxation of revenues earned from intellectual property rights, according to a spokeswoman for McDonald’s quoted in the Guardian newspaper this week. The move seeks to benefit from advantageous intellectual […]
UK Parliament Report: Health Access A ‘Treatment Timebomb’ 15/07/2009 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment “Maintaining HIV/AIDS treatment to keep people alive will cripple developing economies, or place unbearable strains on richer countries trying to support them and action is needed now, to avert crisis later,” says a report released this week by a cross-cutting parliamentary group in the United Kingdom. The All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS, a backbench […]
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.
July Edition Of IP-Watch Monthly Reporter Now Available 13/07/2009 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The Intellectual Property Watch Monthly Edition features top news on international IP policymaking, the latest on who is coming and going in the international IP community, news briefs and more. The July edition is now available for subscribers.
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.
G8 Public Health Report Cites IP, Innovation 10/07/2009 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The Group of 8 industrialised countries plus Russia have issued their report on global public health, and a preliminary report on accountability. The 165-page health report (mostly annexes) encourages implementation of the World Health Organization strategy on intellectual property rights and innovation. It also calls for a review of “options for new innovative financing mechanisms […]