Year Ahead: Key IP-Related Issues, Dates At The WTO In 2015 09/02/2015 by Elena Bourtchouladze for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment This year is shaping up to be a busy one for the World Trade Organization, and intellectual property issues are among those coming up.
WHO Board Recommends Extension Of Plan For Health Innovation, IP 03/02/2015 by William New and Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The World Health Organization Executive Board this week recommended the extension of an important strategy and plan of action on health, IP and innovation. It also set out steps to resolve questions over evaluation and review of the strategy and plan of action before the annual World Health Assembly in May.
WHO Sets Path For Completing Rules Of Engagement With Industry, Foundations 02/02/2015 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The World Health Organization Executive Board has set a way forward from now to the annual May World Health Assembly for addressing the sensitive issue of drafting a framework for engagement with “non-state actors,” such as industry, foundations, academics and other non-governmental stakeholders.
WHO Still Finding Its Way On Financing R&D For Diseases Affecting Poor Countries 02/02/2015 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment In search of sustainable innovation models for cures for diseases affecting primarily developing countries, with the Ebola epidemic as a new reminder of the necessity and urgency of the matter, the World Health Organization had tasked an expert working group with the search for solutions. Last week, the WHO Executive Board took note of the progress made so far.
IP Rights Must Remain Distinct From Fake Medicines Policy At WHO, Members Warn 30/01/2015 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Intellectual property issues emerged at the World Health Organization Executive Board today as members discussed fake and substandard medicines, with some countries saying that the fight against such medicines should not serve as a pretext to enforce intellectual property rights and prevent access to safe generic medicines.
Geneva Forecast On Internet Governance: 2015 Expected To Be A Decisive Year 30/01/2015 by James Cote for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A Geneva expert has offered his view on the top internet governance issues likely to come up in 2015. These include: cybersecurity, privacy, internet neutrality, and the proposed transition of control over a key underlying aspect of the internet.
The Year Ahead In Internet Governance: Of Competing Institutions, IANA Transition, And A New Crypto War 25/01/2015 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment For many years Electronic Frontier Foundation Policy Analyst Jeremy Malcolm has been predicting the next year would be the pivotal year for the UN-led Internet Governance Forum (IGF). With the NetMundial Initiative being constructed these coming months and governments having not yet agreed to prolong the IGF mandate, the decade-old forum might be challenged to either move or become just one of many internet governance conference venues. And while some hope the future oversight over the internet’s underlying IANA function could become an experiment in shared global governance, others point out that more and more of the interesting questions of internet politics are decided elsewhere: national governments, trade negotiators, big data giants and cyberdominance strategists.
WIPO Seminar Discusses Interface Between IP And Private International Law 23/01/2015 by Elena Bourtchouladze for Intellectual Property Watch and James Cote for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Experts gathered in Geneva recently to review past projects on intellectual property and private international law, and look toward the future. Now, through efforts to draft a set of guidelines, headway is being made on finding ways to manage the legal uncertainties in this area.
Biosimilars Present Opportunity, Challenge For Developing Countries, UNCTAD Group Says 23/01/2015 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Biosimilars are a hot topic. Beyond the colossal profits foreseen by some, drawing a lot of interested parties into the game, developing countries mean to play a role in this new frontier. However, biosimilars – close copies of biopharmaceutical products – are difficult and very costly to produce and come as a challenge to the generic industry used to duplicating small molecules. And some warn about differences in regulatory requirements, which could effectively boot developing countries out of the global market.
The Copyright Manifesto: How The EU Should Support Innovation And Creativity Through Copyright Reform 22/01/2015 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Teresa Hackett writes: “Copyright divide in numbers”, the graph on the first page of the newly launched ‘The Copyright Manifesto. How the European Union should Support Innovation and Creativity through Copyright Reform’ tells a story. In an illustration of the results of the European Union’s (EU) 2014 consultation on copyright, publishers, authors and collective management organizations express strong support for the current system, while end users and institutional users (such as libraries) are strongly in favour of copyright reform. So if copyright is supposed to benefit everyone, the copyright system sure isn’t working for everyone.