On Tuesday, 5 February 2013, the Secretariats of the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) released their joint publication, Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Intersections between public health, intellectual property and trade. This 251-page report covers a lot of ground.

In the words of the secretariats,

Notes on the Blur Banff proposal*
KEI Research Note 2013:1
February 1, 2013

This is a brief note on the Blur/Banff proposal for a system of decentralized decision making and competitive intermediaries to provide money to support recorded music that is freely available. Also discussed are extensions of the competitive intermediary approach to other areas where information goods can be supplied as public goods.

On Thursday, 31 January 2013, KEI filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in the case Association for Molecular Pathology, et. al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., et. al. Our full brief is available for download here.

Background

On Monday, 28 January 2013, KEI filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in the case Federal Trade Commission v. Watson Pharmaceuticals**. The case involves a question of whether pay-for-delay settlement agreements, also known as reverse payments (where a branded pharmaceutical company will pay a generic firm to stay off the market for a certain period of time), are per se legal or whether they are presumptively anticompetitive.

* The author thanks Belinda Townsend, Katy Athersuch, Judit Rius Sanjuan and Alice Fabbri for their comprehensive notes during the WHO Executive Board discussion of the CEWG agenda item.

Joint Letter to the 132nd WHO Executive Board: Follow-up of the report of the CEWG

Distinguished Delegate,

We are writing to express our deep concern at the lack of ambition and apparent inaction of the WHO and Member States in taking forward the work of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination (CEWG). This inaction is costing lives.

On Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013, the Department of State will convene a meeting to discuss a proposal by the Hague Conference on Private International Law ("Hague Conference") to developing a new "instrument" on the recognition and enforcement of judgments, including "new jurisdictional filters."

On January 16, the India Intellectual Property Appeals Board (IPAB) began a hearing on the merits of Bayer's appeal of India's first compulsory license.

The outcome of this trial, which focuses on the cancer drug Nexavar, is a matter of first impression for the IPAB, and is expected to set precedents on a wide range of issues, including the permissible grounds for granting compulsory licenses, the relationship between the India patent law and the TRIPS Agreement, and the setting of terms and conditions for the compulsory license, including the royalty rates.

The Licensing Executives Society International, Inc. (LESI) is convening its second Global Technology Impact Forum (GTIF) at the headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from 20 January 2013 to 22 January 2013. Although this international forum is hosted at WIPO headquarters, this event does not appear on the calendar of WIPO events for January 2013. It should be noted that this Forum just precedes the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting In Davos from 23 January 2013 to 27 January 2013.

On Thursday, 10 January 2013, USPTO held a roundtable on genetic diagnostic testing. This roundtable followed up on the public hearing hosted by USPTO nearly a year ago (and the written comments submitted). The purpose of the public hearings last year was so that USPTO could gather information and viewpoints in advance of the report it was directed to write at the behest of Congress in the America Invents Act.

Today, January 10, 2013, USTR held a remarkably uninformative briefing on the negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement for non-industry NGOs. Barbara Weisel (below center), the chief USTR negotiator for the TPP, led the briefing, accompanied by two persons from the public engagement offices.

On June 2, 2010, KEI submitted a FOIA request to the White House Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). The request covered:

KEI collection of various interviews, statements and news clips from the December 17-18, 2012 WIPO Extraordinary General Assembly that approved a June 2013 diplomatic conference to negotiate a treaty on copyright exceptions for persons with certain disabilities.

Video Interviews

Video interviews from the WIPO Extraordinary General Assembly, after reaching a landmark decision to:

Geneva, Tuesday, 18 December.2012

At the end of the two day WIPO Extraordinary General Assembly, Member States today agreed "to negotiate and adopt a treaty on limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities."

Here is a link to the WIPO press release: WIPO Advances Toward Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Persons with Print Disabilities, Morocco Offers to Host Diplomatic Conference Geneva, December 18, 2012,PR/2012/727

Here is the WBU press release:

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WORLD BLIND UNION (WBU) press release 18 December 2012

Press Release – WIPO Negotiations Treaty for Blind people

WIPO member states call for treaty for blind people to be finished in 2013