U.S. Patent Reform Effort Narrowed in Congress; Could Resurface In Supreme Court 29/09/2005 by Sarah Stirland for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment By Sarah Lai Stirland for Intellectual Property Watch A wall of opposition from the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and independent inventor communities this year gutted some of the most controversial provisions from an ambitious patent reform bill introduced in July in the U.S. House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the U.S. Congress. But one of the […]
Failure Of Patent Harmonisation Not Critical For WIPO, Official Says 07/09/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Failure to get agreement on a proposal to harmonise national patent laws by World Intellectual Property Organisation members will not impact the functioning and credibility of the organisation, a top WIPO official said today. Failure to agree “is not necessarily the end of the world for WIPO,” Francis Gurry, WIPO deputy director general, said in […]
Agreement Out Of Reach In WIPO Patent Harmonisation Talks 03/06/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Governments’ failure to reach agreement on a way forward on patent harmonisation talks at the World Intellectual Property Organisation today has cast a pall on the future of the issue within the UN body, sources said. The meeting of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) at Geneva-based WIPO was scheduled for 1-2 […]
Stakes Are High For WIPO Patent Harmonisation Meeting 31/05/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The stakes are high for many participants in a 1-2 June negotiation at the World Intellectual Property Organisation, as the future of efforts to harmonise international patent laws is on the table. Developing country governments and non-governmental organizations raised concerns in the lead-up to this week’s Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) meeting […]
Experts Discuss Essential Drugs Patent Pool Proposal 19/05/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Consumer representatives, United Nations diplomats, drug industry representatives and others this week discussed a proposal to form a patent pool for essential medicines. The proposal was put forward by Consumers International and the Consumer Project on Technology (CP Tech) at the annual U.N. World Health Assembly, and on Tuesday filled a room with people holding […]
Pressure Rises On Drug Patents In Brazil 15/05/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Brazil, a developing country leader on international intellectual property issues, has come under pressure at home and abroad over whether to lift domestic patents on foreign pharmaceuticals for AIDS to allow cheaper generic versions to be produced. This week, nearly 200 non-governmental organisations from around the world signed onto a letter urging the Brazilian government […]
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 […]
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 […]
Consensus Slips On WIPO Patent Harmonisation Talks 10/03/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A key group of developing countries this week sent a potential shockwave through fledgling efforts at the World Intellectual Property Organisation to restart talks on the international harmonisation of national patent laws. The 14-member “Group of Friends of Development” issued a statement on the outcome of a recent WIPO consultation in which general agreement was […]
WIPO Rekindles Patent Talks As Some Cry Foul 19/02/2005 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The World Intellectual Property Organisation on Friday announced a recommended path for future work on harmonising patent laws around the world. The announcement came after a two-day informal consultation with WIPO Director General Kamil Idris and a group of mostly like-minded nations in Casablanca, Morocco. Idris stressed in a release that the talks ending Thursday […]