WTO TRIPS Council: For Some, IP-Intensive Industries Are Engine Of Economy. For Others, IP Alone Is Not Sufficient 28/02/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The World Trade Organization committee on intellectual property met this week and gave an opportunity to WTO members to discuss the value of intellectual property for micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs), and its importance for IP-intensive industries. Several members, such as the European Union on behalf of its members presented data to illustrate the importance of IP for MSMEs. Meanwhile, India and South Africa remarked that IP is only one factor to promote innovation, but are not a sufficient ingredient.
WTO, WHO, WIPO Heads Share Views On Innovation And Access At Trilateral Symposium 27/02/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment How to encourage health innovations and make sure that new medicines, vaccines, or diagnostics will reach every person who needs them? That is a question which has been hotly debated in different fora. Yesterday, the World Trade Organization, UN World Health Organization, and UN World Intellectual Property Organization jointly held a symposium on how innovative technologies can promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The WHO director general called on his colleagues to support policies facilitating access to health technologies.
Wellcome Trust Report Recommends UK-EU Agreement On Research & Innovation 27/02/2018 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The Wellcome Trust, the London-based biomedical research charity, has issued recommendations for improved scientific collaboration after Brexit, including to establish a formal agreement on research and innovation. This includes continued leadership by the UK on open research, and might include expanding the UK patent box scheme, it says.
Swiss Panel Looks At Value-Based Drug Pricing, Link Between R&D And Prices 26/02/2018 by Catherine Saez and William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Some products are too cheap, generic drug companies do not invest in them because they do not make enough money out of them. Others seem astronomically expensive, and are said to include the costs of all research, successes and failures alike. Panellists at a recent Swiss-organised expert event in Bern concurred that something must done about pricing, and explored some surprising ways to do it.
Least Developed Countries Ask For Better Implementation Of TRIPS Tech Transfer Requirements 23/02/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The World Trade Organization council on intellectual property rights will hold the first of its three annual meetings next week. The now-usual item on IP and innovation is joined by a discussion topic on IP and the public interest. Separately, the WTO least developed countries group has put forward a request that developed countries fully implement their technology transfer requirements under the WTO rules. The council meeting will be preceded by a high-level trilateral meeting of the WTO, World Health Organization and World Intellectual Property Organization.
CARB-X Announces 2018 Round Of Funding For Antibacterial Research 23/02/2018 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment CARB-X , a global private-public partnership for research on antimicrobial resistance, this week announced its 2018 rounds of funding for research on “antibiotics, vaccines, diagnostics, devices and other life-saving products to respond to the threat of drug-resistant bacteria.”
Rising Patent Applications – And Challenges – For New Technologies, Artificial Intelligence 22/02/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The steady increase in innovations relating to new digital technologies, in particular technologies using artificial intelligence, is matched by an upward patenting trend. The European Patent Office recently issued a study on the subject and is preparing a conference in May, while the World Intellectual Property Organization is working on its own in-depth study. However, the current patent system might not be ready for artificial intelligence-related inventions, according to a global standards-setting body.
Patenting Artificial Intelligence Might Hamper Progress, EFF Says 22/02/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The Electronic Frontier Foundation launched a project last year to measure progress in artificial intelligence innovations and understand the legal, political, and technical issues potentially raised by those inventions. Some eight months later, the project has tracked rapid progress of those technologies, in particular in machine learning. According to the foundation, patents might be hampering the progress of artificial intelligence, and with the risk of patent trolls claiming rights on patents on machine learning systems.
Professor Tells UN, Governments Of Coming “Tsunami” Of Data And Artificial Intelligence 21/02/2018 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment NEW YORK — Technology is moving so fast it could cause harm to humans even as it brings remarkable advances unless governments act, an Israeli professor and visionary thinker told a gathering of government and United Nations representatives here last week. A hint? In the next five years we are all going to be cyborgs. In fact most of us already are.
USPTO Anticipates Slight Decline In Patent Filings, Including For PCT 20/02/2018 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is predicting a slight decline in some patent filings for 2018 and 2019, including through the international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization. Trademarks, meanwhile, will likely see slowing growth.