Reform Debate Trips Up WIPO Development Aid Meeting 15/04/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Members of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on Friday failed to agree on the proper role for a permanent committee on technical cooperation that could impact larger efforts by some to reform WIPO toward development issues. Debate focused on a proposal by developed countries (drafted by Canada) to broaden the scope of the existing […]
WIPO Development Agenda Talks Move Ahead 13/04/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment World Intellectual Property Organisation members late Wednesday night agreed to continue discussing a proposal to more deeply infuse developing country needs into the mission of the UN body. After three full days of closed-door meetings – much of them in private meetings of smaller groups — members reached a carefully crafted compromise: to hold two […]
India Joins Opposition To Casablanca Patent Meeting Outcome 10/04/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments India, a critical player in policy debates at the World Intellectual Property Organisation, has announced its opposition to a recommendation on global patent harmonisation backed by a select group of countries in a February consultation with WIPO Director General Kamil Idris. The recommendation was agreed to by all but one participant in an invite-only consultation […]
WIPO Development Agenda: Developing Countries Submit New Proposals 06/04/2005 by Carolyn Deere, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment On the eve of high-level meetings next week on development and intellectual property, the fourteen co-sponsors of the proposal for the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s new Development Agenda today submitted detailed elaborations of their proposals for incorporating development into WIPO’s work. The fourteen so-called Friends of Development asked the WIPO Secretariat to distribute the proposal […]
Debate Heats Up Over WIPO Development Agenda 01/04/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Negotiators attending closed meetings at a UN body in Geneva in mid-April could shape the policy agenda for development and intellectual property for years to come, participants and observers say. It is not clear how the consecutive meetings at the World Intellectual Property Organisation will relate to one another. The first, an “intersessional intergovernmental meeting” […]
Drug Patents Still At Issue In U.S.-Central America Trade Deal 01/04/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Washington, D.C.–The free trade agreement signed last year by the United States, five Central American nations and the Dominican Republic still faces a tough fight in the U.S. Congress for a number of reasons, one of which remains provisions on the treatment of pharmaceutical patents. Guatemala recently responded to U.S. government and industry pressure by […]
TRIPS Public Health Amendment Deadline Missed 31/03/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Governments negotiating to amend the World Trade Organisation intellectual property agreement to allow countries to export generic pharmaceuticals to other countries in need failed to reach agreement by a 31 March deadline, according to sources in Geneva. The deadline was set last year to replace a 30 August 2003 waiver for countries to manufacture products […]
India’s TRIPS Compliance Effort Could Be Test Case 24/03/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment In what could be seen as a “test case” for the balance between intellectual property protection and the promotion of public health, the Indian government today appeared to meet a World Trade Organisation obligation by passing a law on the protection of pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical patents. But the Indian Parliament made a number of […]
Talks On TRIPS and Health Stall As Deadline Nears 21/03/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Negotiations to expand the availability of medicines under a World Trade Organisation agreement on intellectual property rights by 31 March broke down Monday after informal consultations showed no compromise forthcoming, according to diplomatic sources in Geneva. At issue is an amendment of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to allow […]
Officials Make Incremental Progress In TRIPS Talks 15/03/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Officials negotiating to implement and update a 10-year-old agreement on intellectual property rights at the World Trade Organisation made a little progress toward that goal last week, according to official sources in Geneva. While small gains on the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) are hard-fought, the outcome of several days […]