Conference: Access To Knowledge, Human Rights Can Learn From Each Other 19/02/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment A treaty on copyright exceptions for visually impaired readers, open educational materials, use of the internet without surveillance, and early human rights movements around access to electricity were among issues debated at a recent academic conference on access to knowledge.
Year Ahead: Reforming Global IP Systems – Trends In A2K In 2010 12/02/2010 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Ensuring public access to knowledge while supporting intellectual property rights cuts across broad areas such as internet availability, public health, education and culture, climate change, and basic technical standards. And while the non-profit movement that has worked to encourage access is facing serious challenges this year, they are set to fight it out in the various fora related to essential drugs, books and academic journals, and software again in 2010.
Advisory Group: ‘Near Perfect Storm’ Coming On Gene Patents In The US 10/02/2010 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments A report by a United States health department advisory group issued last week presents recommendations aimed at preventing patents on genes and licensing practices in the US from negatively impacting patient access to genetic tests that would allow them to establish their genetic dispositions to declare potential illnesses.
Informe de la ONU: las políticas mundiales de PI no prestan atención a los derechos de los indígenas 09/02/2010 by David Cronin for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Las culturas de los pueblos indígenas a menudo no se han tenido en cuenta en la elaboración de las normas mundiales de propiedad intelectual, según se afirma en un nuevo informe de las Naciones Unidas.
First-Ever Drop In Filings Under Patent Cooperation Treaty Seen In 2009 08/02/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments International patent filings under the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Patent Cooperation Treaty fell for the first time in three decades in 2009, owing to a deep economic downturn, WIPO officials said today. Overall patent filings fell 4.5 percent in 2009, but industrialised nations were particularly hard-hit, and are also expected to have slower growth rates in 2010 than emerging economies.
Breakdown In WIPO Patent Committee Could Symbolise Deeper Differences 01/02/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment No agreement could be reached at last week’s meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization committee on patents, a sign of still-deep rifts in what countries want from the global patent system.
WIPO Committee Discusses Boosting Client-Patent Adviser Secrecy 01/02/2010 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A key committee focused on patent law at the World Intellectual Property Organization in seeking to establish its new work programme last week discussed a proposal to better protect the confidentiality of information passed between patent advisers and their clients. But the meeting ended in no decision, and the issue is expected to come up again when the patent committee next meets in October 2010.
Panel: Standards Aid Innovation, But Only If Open 29/01/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Standards are vitally important to innovation but in order for them to serve their purpose effectively, they must be open, said a panel at the World Intellectual Property Organization this week.
UN Human Rights Body Examines WIPO Development Agenda, Tech Transfer, WHO 29/01/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment A high-level task force on the right to development last week released two new reports at the United Nations, the results of technical missions to the World Intellectual Property Organization on its Development Agenda and to the World Health Organization on its strategy on intellectual property.
Latest WIPO Draft Shows Options For Work Programme On Patents 28/01/2010 by Kaitlin Mara for Intellectual Property Watch and William New Leave a Comment The latest available text on future work at the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on the Law of Patents is available from the IP Watch website. The draft emerged this evening.