EU Commission Position Paper On IP And Brexit: Trademarks, Designs, GIs 12/09/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment To say Brexit is a conundrum is almost a euphemism, the list of issues to settle between the 27 remaining European Union members and the United Kingdom seems bottomless. Intellectual property is no exception, and the European Commission Brexit-dedicated task force has issued a position paper on IP, setting out principles for the “UK’s orderly withdrawal from the EU.”
WIPO Budget For 2018-2019, New External Offices, Under Discussion This Week 11/09/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The Program and Budget Committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization this week is meeting for the second time this year. It is expected to consider the budget for the 2018/2019 biennium before the annual WIPO General Assembly next month. Delegates flew through the agenda today and had little to remark on audit and oversight reports, but the next days might give way to more discussions, in particular on the diplomatically thorny issue of which countries should host a WIPO external office. On a separate issue, the United States tabled a paper presenting an alternative methodology for allocating funds to WIPO-managed systems, reducing revenue reliance on a single global patent agreement.
Comings And Goings In The International IP Community Year To Date 06/09/2017 by Catherine Saez and William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Heading into the final stretch of the year, it is a good time to catch up on all of the staff changes that have occurred in governments, industry, law firms and nongovernmental organisations related to the IP community in Geneva. Here is a rundown of some of top moves made by people since the start of the year.
Workshop To Address Public Interest And CRISPR Gene Editing, CAR T Cancer Treatment 04/09/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Experts at a one-day workshop in Washington DC next week will discuss public interest aspects of patents and two breakthrough new medical technologies related to gene editing (CRISPR) and cancer treatment (CAR T).
Better Data On Fake Drugs Needed To Fight The Scourge 30/08/2017 by Tatum Anderson for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The problem of fake medicines is a big one. But precisely how big? The problem is, when reporting numbers, news stories, reports and institutions have historically bundled the different kinds of medicines together, says an expert at the WHO.
Case Study – Building Effective IP Coverage Efficiently Within An International Engineering Conglomerate 29/08/2017 by Guest contributor for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment This article describes how to build up an effective IP coverage for an international industrial conglomerate by defining the basic IP shield construction for all group companies, setting up IP generation programs and developing an IP focus while doing this efficiently by engaging the management into the IP decisions and managing the mix of internal and external IP service resources.
Did Monsanto Write Malawi’s Seed Policy? 25/08/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Tim Wise writes: In late July, a short article was published in a Malawian newspaper: “Press Release on Organization of Seed Fairs.” Issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Water Development, in conjunction with the Seed Traders Association of Malawi, the short statement advised the public that “only quality certified seed suppliers registered with Government to produce and/or market seed should be allowed to display seed at such events.” The release was signed by Bright Kumwembe for the Agriculture Ministry. I received this news in the United States as I prepared a research trip to Malawi, and I was shocked. Malawi is in the final stages of a multi-year effort to reform its seed policy and laws, and the largest point of contention at this point is the failure of the draft policy to recognize and protect so-called “farmers’ rights” to save, exchange, and sell the seeds they grow on their farms.
Malaysia Inclusion In Gilead Voluntary Licence – A Product Of Compulsory Licence Pressure 24/08/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Gilead’s announcement today that they would include four middle-income countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Belarus, Ukraine) in their sofosbuvir voluntary licence was a welcome surprise, and will enable millions access to their highly effective, but exorbitantly priced, drug. The decision to include these countries, however, no doubt is a response to increasing pressure from within these countries to either issue a compulsory licence (CL) or a government use licence (GUL), invalidate the sofosbuvir patents, or block data exclusivity for the drug.
US, European Views On IP Management And Digital Business 25/07/2017 by Guest contributor for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Data-driven technologies are enabling the expansion of trade and data flows around the world. We have disruptive smart products, smart industrial processes, smart clouds and smart services. Traditional industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemical and mechanical engineering digitally transform production processes to generate custom-tailored services and improve competitiveness using artificial intelligence while new companies emerge with disruptive offers. Such artificial intelligence-based business models, however, are bringing about a rethinking in European regulations in relation to copyrights, such as that deployed by DeepMind and Pinterest, for instance, because machine learning may reproduce countless amounts of proprietary content to generate raw solutions. A recent event in Paris delved into these and other issues, including data ownership and access rights, as well as inventions by computers.
The Case For Nations To Act On Medicines Access 23/07/2017 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments NEW YORK — A range of speakers, including top health officials from both a developed and developing country, last week laid out the case for why the world’s leaders must now launch a shift in the way medicines all populations need are developed and priced. The need for global collaboration is clear, speakers said, but who will lead?