Agricultural Innovation Needed In Africa, With Farmers’ Participation, WTO Panellists Say 26/09/2012 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Farmers’ needs are not addressed by the current intellectual property framework or by innovation, according to panellists at the World Trade Organization Public Forum this week, and farmers should be invited to participate in international negotiations directly impacting their livelihood. Meanwhile, the African continent is seeking a way to address the food security problem, faced with a growing population and dire need to modernise their agriculture, other panellists said.
Transparency – Still An Uphill Battle In The EU 21/09/2012 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Better access for the European Parliament to classified documents will be realised by an inter-institutional agreement passed nearly unanimously by the members of the European Parliament last week at their recent Strasbourg session.
India: Balancing Public And Private Interests In The Intellectual Property Regime 18/09/2012 by Patralekha Chatterjee for Intellectual Property Watch 5 Comments NEW DELHI – In this month, there have been two court orders in India that underscore the complexities underlying the country’s intellectual property regime. Last Friday (14 September), the Chennai-based Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) which is responsible for hearing appeals on patent applications, rejected a petition by German pharma major Bayer AG, seeking a stay on an order of India’s Controller of Patents granting a compulsory licence (CL) to Indian generic drug maker Natco Pharma Limited, for a drug used to treat liver and kidney cancer.
US Ambassador Sees Hope For WIPO Visually Impaired Treaty This Year 13/09/2012 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment United States Ambassador Betty King told a gathering of journalists at the US mission yesterday of the important work being done at the international institutions under her responsibility in Geneva, including the World Intellectual Property Organization and World Health Organization.
Donations Rise For Wikileaks To Post Trans-Pacific Partnership Text 31/08/2012 by Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments Nearly US$25,000 – and growing – in donations has been collected to hand over to Wikileaks if it successfully leaks the top-secret text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement currently under negotiation. The draft text has been blocked from public scrutiny while being shared only with industry.
NGOs Oppose US Proposal On Copyright For Trans-Pacific Trade Deal 30/08/2012 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments At least a dozen non-governmental groups from several continents have issued a joint statement opposing apparent copyright language proposed by the United States in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement negotiations. The groups said the draft language, aimed at curbing copyright infringement, could undermine critical copyright exceptions, which are built into laws in order to protect society’s access to public knowledge.
WIPO Drug Research Project Strikes First Agreements 29/08/2012 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A World Intellectual Property Organization project aimed at expanding research on diseases occurring predominately in developing countries using IP-protected material has announced its first research agreements.
Public Library Must Provide Accessible E-Readers Under US Law 29/08/2012 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The United States Justice Department and the National Federation of the Blind have reached a settlement with the Sacramento, California Public Library Authority to fix violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act caused by using Barnes & Noble NOOK electronic reader devices in a patron lending programme. The readers excluded persons who are blind or have other disabilities requiring features such as text-to-speech or access through audio or tactile options. The library will no longer purchase exclusionary devices and has agreed to acquire a set of accessible ones, as well as train staff on the requirements of the disabilities law.
MSF: India’s Bayer-Natco Compulsory Licence Case Set For 3 Sept. 21/08/2012 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment A hearing in a case involving a challenge by Bayer pharmaceutical company of India’s compulsory licence aimed at making a cancer drug more affordable is moved to 3 September, public health advocacy group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced today.
Isolated DNA Declared Patentable By US Court Of Appeals 17/08/2012 by Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit released a decision today (16 August) on the patentability of genes in yet another twist to the so-called Myriad case. At stake was the patentability of two human genes associated with hereditary breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Myriad Genetics’ patents were challenged by the Association for Molecular Pathology.