Global Health 2035 Report: Flawed Projections 23/01/2014 by Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Daniele Dionisio writes: Hopes that a comprehensive global health goal could be reached by 2035 are hardly credible with the load of unresolved issues still on the table. This article turns the spotlight on much-debated relevant questions that were left out or under-scrutinised in a recently published Lancet report.
Special Report: Traditional Knowledge And IP: View From The Ground Up 17/01/2014 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Participants at a recent conference in South Africa offered insights and some optimism about prospects for local communities to exploit their traditional knowledge to help their economies while at the same time protecting that knowledge.
Successful WHO Drug Prequalification Programme Deemed At Risk 16/01/2014 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment A 12-year-old World Health Organization programme for prequalifying medical products has helped international organisations and others to safely purchase billions of US dollars’ worth of quality medicines per year, but now is at risk due to funding shortages, a new study released today found.
Departed Indian Diplomat Confronted US Business Over India’s IP Policy 12/01/2014 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Just weeks before being abruptly arrested and strip-searched in New York, a now-departed Indian diplomat took on the powerful US business lobby over India’s controversial approach to intellectual property.
Interview: Prof. Chidi Oguamanam On “Intellectual Property In Global Governance” 10/01/2014 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment In this interview, Intellectual Property Watch sat down with Prof. Chidi Oguamanam, a professor in the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, to talk about his recent book, “Intellectual Property in Global Governance: A Development Question.” The book, published by Routledge, covers issues of the knowledge economy, structures and regime dynamics, human rights, agriculture, traditional/indigenous knowledge, traditional cultural expressions/folklore, and management of intellectual property in global governance.
Top IP-Watch Stories Of 2013: India, Marrakesh Treaty, Seed/Gene Patents, WIPO Election 09/01/2014 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Looking back on 2013, the list of the most-viewed stories on the Intellectual Property Watch website shows that reporting on activities in India, especially related to patents and public health, continued to draw the most attention. Other top stories were the Marrakesh Treaty on copyright exceptions for blind readers, legal cases involving patents on seeds and on plant and human genes, the election for World Intellectual Property Organization director general, free-trade agreements (including the Wikileaks leak of the IP chapter of the Trans-Atlantic Partnership agreement), Russian copyrights, and 3D printing.
Global Congress On IP And Public Interest Adopts Principles For Negotiations 06/01/2014 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A recent conference on intellectual property and the public interest concluded with the adoption of public interest principles to guide international trade negotiations and international organisations.
Broadcasting Treaty Moving At WIPO; Library Copyright Exceptions Slower 22/12/2013 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments After a week of work on the three current subjects of the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee, member states mostly made progress on a potential treaty to protect broadcasting organisations, while exceptions and limitations to copyright for libraries, archives, education and research remain in the stage of determining broad concepts.
Developing Countries Lack Capacity To Take Advantage Of Marrakesh Treaty 18/12/2013 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 7 Comments The 2013 Marrakesh Treaty has been applauded by beneficiaries throughout the world for answering the need for wider access to special format works for visually impaired people. However, the path to its implementation, even after it is ratified by enough countries, appears to be strewn with difficulties in developing countries, which will need capacity-building, according to a speaker at a discussion panel organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
WIPO Assembly: Potential Design Treaty Misses Train To Russia In June, Still On Track For 2014 13/12/2013 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments It took World Intellectual Property Organization members long hours in informal consultations over the past two days and far into last night to try solving two outstanding issues in the extraordinary session of the organisation’s General Assembly. Yet another extraordinary session is on the way in May to try to agree on the convening of a diplomatic conference – a high level treaty negotiation – on industrial designs later in 2014.