Tribute To An IP Community Influencer Brings Together IP Experts In Geneva 20/06/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Inspiring, generous, humanist, nobody was short of praise and anecdotes at an event last week to celebrate the lifelong contribution of Pedro Roffe, well-known Geneva thinker and writer on intellectual property. A conference on the evolution of intellectual property, trade and development had been organised for the occasion, congregating many IP experts offering their perspective on the role of IP in fields, such as public health, innovation policy, and competition law.
Open Access Policy In International Organisations 19/06/2017 by Elise De Geyter for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Open access is “part of the DNA” of international intergovernmental organisations, Charlotte Beauchamp, head of editorial and design at the World Intellectual Property Organization, said during a workshop last week. Representatives of different international organisations described during the workshop the increasing use of an open access policy by their organisations.
Revised Articles Protecting Folklore Head To WIPO General Assembly, For Better Or Worse 19/06/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Delegations this week agreed on a revised set of draft articles aiming to protect traditional cultural expressions (folklore) from misappropriation, typically for commercial interests. However, several proposals made by the United States, some of which were supported by the European Union, were seen by others as defying the purpose of the potential treaty.
WSIS Forum: Close Link Between Internet And Human Rights 14/06/2017 by Elise De Geyter for Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments There is “no question” that there is a link between the infrastructure of the internet and human rights, Nicolas Seidler, senior policy advisor at the Internet Society, said at an information society event this week. Human rights are becoming “increasingly part of the design of the internet,” Niels ten Oever, head of digital at ARTICLE 19, said at the same event.
Made In China: The Past, Present And Future Of Chinese IPR 14/06/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Shai Jalfin writes: Conservative projections say that China will surpass the United States as the number one economy in the world by 2030, but the shift could happen as soon as next year. Either way, there’s no doubt that China has emerged as one of the most important commercial economies in the world, and businesses everywhere are vying to enter its market. However, there is a serious hurdle when foreign companies decide to take their products to China – intellectual property rights (IPR), or more accurately, the country’s lack of adequate IP protection. History shows that bringing business to China, while extremely lucrative, has also been extremely risky – but it’s a market that cannot be ignored. Here is a look at the past, present and future of IPR in China.
Stakeholders Collectively Designing Future Of Artificial Intelligence 14/06/2017 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Designing a world where humans have to share space with robots is not an easy task. Several initiatives are looking at ways to address issues linked to the main fuel of artificial intelligence: data. Such issues include privacy, data ownership and sharing, but also making sure that artificial intelligence will not widen the existing digital divide. Speakers at a global summit last week provided insight on ongoing efforts to understand and best tackle the inevitable and sometimes unforeseen problems of this new territory.
Panellists At UN: Create A Global Research Centre For Artificial Intelligence? 13/06/2017 by Peter Kenny for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Artificial intelligence can solve many challenges facing humanity and it is seen playing a contributing role to the achieving of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but being data-driven, the inevitable question that arises is who owns it and manages it.
At WIPO, Water Entrepreneurs Meet Investors 13/06/2017 by Elise De Geyter for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment Entrepreneurs with innovative water technologies came to the World Intellectual Property Organization last week to find new partnerships and investors. The urgent need to work together and build partnerships in the water sector was the overall message of the event. “Nobody can do the work alone,” Nicholas Niggli, Republic & State of Geneva’s Director General, Economic Development, Research & Innovation, said, referring to the many existing water challenges.
WHO Director-Elect Tedros In US, Meeting With Funders, International Organisations, Governments 12/06/2017 by William New, Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment World Health Organization Director-Elect Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in touring the United States this week, visiting key funders of the WHO, partner international organisations, US government agencies and nongovernmental organisations, and a Canadian ministry.
US Supreme Court Adopts International Exhaustion Of Patents (Part II): Addressing the New Competitive Landscape 08/06/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Frederick M. Abbott writes: The US Supreme Court has created a new competitive landscape with its decision adopting international exhaustion of patents. For the pharmaceutical sector, we can expect an initial period of uncertainty as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assesses the regulatory framework affected by the decision and as competing stakeholders advance their interests. In an earlier Inside Views contribution, I addressed the principal impact of the decision on the US pharmaceuticals market: downward pricing pressure.[1] This follow-on addresses some of the regulatory and access issues affected by the decision, observing that parallel trade in pharmaceutical products is a long-standing practice, that recently introduced US legislative proposals may shape the regulatory framework in the United States, and concluding with ways that access programs in favor of developing countries are protected.