Leaked Letter Shows Pressure On Colombia Not To Issue Compulsory Licence For Glivec 06/02/2018 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment A newly leaked 2016 letter from the CEO of Novartis to the president of Colombia, made available by Swiss group Public Eye, shows the level of concern the Swiss pharmaceutical company had over the effect of possible issuance of a compulsory licence for Novartis drug Glivec in the pivotal South American economy.
Global Summit On IP And Access Discusses Impact Of TRIPS-Plus Measures On Public Health 17/01/2018 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 10 Comments A network of civil society organisations chose the birthplace of the World Trade Organization, Marrakesh, to hold a global summit on intellectual property and access to medicines this week. Part of the summit focused on stringent IP measures in free trade agreements in particular with the European Union, introducing patent term extension and data exclusivity periods.
Year Ahead: Copyright, Unified Patent Court Remain High On EU Priority List 16/01/2018 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Plans to update European Union copyright rules advanced in 2017 but remain contentious heading into the new year. The proposal for a directive on copyright in the digital single market is the subject of intense debate between the EU Presidency and the European Parliament, with no clear end in sight to the negotiations. Several issues, including a possible “ancillary right” for news publishers and a plan to force online platforms to filter all uploads to combat copyright infringement, remain unresolved. Other copyright matters, such as a regulation on broadcasting and a review of the EU database directive, are in the works. On the patent side, a pressing question is whether – and when – the EU unified patent and patent court (UPC) might finally launch. Several EU comprehensive trade agreements, which include provisions on intellectual property rights, are under negotiation. Cases to watch in the European Court of Justice include a referral from the Netherlands on the issue of whether the taste of cheese can be copyrighted.
How International IP Policy Reconfigured National Politics: An Interview With Prof. Ken Shadlen 11/01/2018 by Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments The recently published book Coalitions and Compliance by Professor Ken Shadlen of the London School of Economics examines how international changes can reconfigure domestic politics. Since the late 1980s, developing countries have been subject to intense pressures regarding intellectual property rights. These pressures have been exceptionally controversial in the area of pharmaceuticals. Historically, fearing the economic and social costs of providing private property rights over knowledge, developing countries did not allow drugs to be patented. Now they must do so, an obligation with significant implications for industrial development and public health. This book analyses different forms of compliance with this new imperative in Latin America, comparing the politics of pharmaceutical patenting in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. The book focuses on two periods of patent politics: initial conflicts over how to introduce drug patents, and then subsequent conflicts over how these new patent systems function. Intellectual Property Watch recently conducted a Q&A with Prof. Shadlen, which appears below.
Top IP-Watch Stories Of 2017: What Do They Tell Us About Multilateral IP Policy? 04/01/2018 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment What IP-Watch stories were readers reading most in 2017, and what does it say about the state of global intellectual property policy? In this article, we look at the most-trafficked stories of last year, and make a few assumptions. Asia, Europe, trade, health. These were the top targets of interest to readers among our offerings. Interestingly, despite all the sound and fury in Washington, our coverage there was not at the top of the list. Even more interestingly, neither was our extensive and world-leading coverage of the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Internet Governance Forum – An Encyclopaedic Endeavour 27/12/2017 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments The 12th Internet Governance Forum has closed its doors and sent home the last of the more than 2,000 die-hard internet governance adepts from 142 countries who stayed until a mere three days before Christmas in the halls of the United Nations in Geneva. Asking the adepts and the critics about what has changed in the forum that started because governments just could not agree on how critical internet infrastructures should be managed during the 2005 UN World Summit on Information Society, the first answer always is just “big”. With originally 3,000 registered, it is the biggest international internet politics conference. But “big” is not only the size of the meeting, it is also the number of workshops, panels, best practice forums and bi-, pluri- and (nearly) multi-lateral meetings taking place over the five days. So this year Intellectual Property Watch, having participated substantively all week, decided to make an encyclopaedic endeavour to bring you the first IGF dictionary (or to make a dictionary about that encyclopaedic endeavour) in an effort to give credit to the richness of the forum, but highlight some problems, too.
Governments Must Provide More Transparency In Trade Negotiations, Coalition Says At IGF 19/12/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments The Internet Governance Forum Dynamic Coalition on Trade and the Internet, a group formed in 2016, held its formal inaugural meeting today and adopted a resolution on transparency in trade negotiations, in particular on trade rules that affect the online and digital environment.
EU-MERCOSUR FTA Puts At Risk Access To Medicines In Brazil, New Impact Assessment Study Finds 01/12/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 4 Comments The European Union (EU) is currently negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with the four founding members of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), which comprises a chapter on intellectual property rights (IPR). A new round of negotiations is taking place from November 29th to December 8th in Brussels[1]. Word is that they aim to announce the closure of the agreement at the next World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference that will be held from 10-13 of December in Buenos Aires and the clock is ticking to close all the chapters before that. The authors have conducted a study that shows the adoption of the measures proposed by the EU could put the sustainability of access to health policies in Brazil at risk, as they could sharply increase public expenditures on medicines.
International Court Of Justice Judges Getting Pulled Into Investor-State Cases 28/11/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment According to a study by a watchdog group released this week, numerous judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have worked or are working on at least 90 investor-state dispute settlement cases, despite a prohibition on them doing work outside their ICJ duties. Fees paid to the judges ranged above USD 1 million among […]
Brexit Drives European Medicines Agency To The Netherlands, Move By March 2019 21/11/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment As a consequence of the decision of the United Kingdom to go its separate way, the remaining European Union member states decided yesterday that the European Medicines Agency should move to Amsterdam by the end of March 2019.