TPP Is Obama’s Top Trade Priority For 2016 02/03/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is the Obama administration’s top trade priority this year, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said in its annual trade agenda released today. The agenda highlights intellectual property protection but also says all the right things on copyright limitations and exceptions, safe harbor for internet service providers, and the ability of countries to use flexibilities under international trade law.
Uganda In Clinical Trials For Ebola Vaccine 02/03/2016 by Hillary Muheebwa for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment KAMPALA, Uganda — An Ebola vaccine trial is underway in Uganda, as the global search for an effective vaccine continues. The vaccine candidate was co-developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a United Kingdom-based pharmaceutical company.
Malawi Awaits Reviewed Copyright Law 02/03/2016 by Munyaradzi Makoni for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Artists in Malawi are hopeful that the Copyright Bill, drafted four years ago, will be discussed when the parliament meets in the first quarter of this year, paving a way to plug unauthorised use of works that they say has led to massive loss of revenue.
CETA Legal Review Completed, Now Off To Parliaments And Governments For Approval 01/03/2016 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The European Union and Canada have jointly announced the finalisation of the legal review for Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
Interview With EPO President Battistelli: Investigations, Unitary Patent And Global Change 29/02/2016 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments The saga of fights between the President of the European Patent Office, Benoît Battistelli, and the trade union SUEPO goes on with a recent decision to fire two and degrade one member of the trade union. Demonstrations at both the Netherlands and the Munich sites of the EPO continue, and further divisions between the president and the EPO Administrative Council are being reported. Battistelli spoke with Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch in January about his view of the fight and about what else he has on his plate as he had decided to continue for one more term in office.
East Africa Pharma Summit Examines Linkages Between Domestic Policies, Industry, Trade And Health 29/02/2016 by Fredrick Nzwili for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment NAIROBI, Kenya — As the budding East African pharmaceutical industry shows clear gains , experts at a pharmaceutical summit in Kenya underlined the sector as key to tackling challenges related to access to essential medicines in the region.
UNITAID Report On Delinking R&D Costs From Medicines Prices 28/02/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Delinkage of research and development costs from medicines prices could “vastly expand” access to medicines by drastically dropping costs of the knowledge component of health products, innovative medicines R&D facility UNITAID says in a new report.
TTIP Negotiations: 12th Round Ends With Plan To Hurry Between Official Rounds 26/02/2016 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments By July trade negotiators from the United States and the European Union want to present a draft text that only has brackets for the “most sensitive issues” in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This was announced by Ignacio Bercero, chief negotiator for the European Union, and his US counterpart Dan Mullaney during a press conference today after this week’s 12th round of TTIP negotiations in Brussels.
IP And Innovation, Non-Violation Complaints On TRIPS Council Menu 26/02/2016 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The now-familiar item of intellectual property and innovation is on the agenda for next week’s regular meeting of the intellectual property committee of the World Trade Organization. This time under the item, a range of developed countries have proposed to discuss education and diffusion, and Switzerland has put forward a paper on nurturing a culture of innovation.
Year Ahead In Internet Governance: Where The Internet Stewards Will Go In 2016 26/02/2016 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Transitioning of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) out of the United States government – or not – is the top issue of a narrower internet governance community in 2016. Yet looming behind the many high-level government events are some more controversial topics that are attracting a wider set of stakeholders: the unresolved issues of privacy, free flow of data, surveillance and encryption, as well as the security or rather insecurity of a space of networked machines, including military machines.