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| The letter opposing the treaty for the blind was signed by TABC Director General Tim Bennett |
We just ran across this mean spirited letter by the Trans-Atlantic Business Council (TABC), a group that describes itself as follows:
The October 25, 2012 NIH March-In Request for ritonavir is now more than one year old, and the NIH has not decided to grant a hearing or reject the petition.
More information about the March-In request is available here:
https://www.keionline.org/2012ritonavir
In 1998 a treaty on R&D went into force between the United States and the European Communities. The “Agreement for scientific and technological cooperation between the European Community and the Government of the United States of America – Intellectual property” sets out a list of cooperative activities in Article 4, and provides an appendix addressing the intellectual property rights that come from those collaborations.
USPTO has confirmed that on October 2, 2013, the United States has signed the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. The U.S. signing, which was not accompanied by a press release, took place on the last day of the WIPO General Assembly, and one day after the United States government began to shut down non-essential operations as a consequence of disputes over the Affordable Care Act.
We sent this letter to the Hill today.
October 8, 2013
Dear Senators Reid and McConnell, Representatives Boehner and Pelosi,
We are writing to ask that Congress hold a hearing on the failure of the NIH to exercise its authority to protect the public from abuses in federally funded inventions.
Since the passage of the BayhDole Act in 1980, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has never granted a petition to “march in” to permit third parties to use patents invented on federally funded research in response to abuses of the patent rights.
In 2012 the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a study titled “Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus” which estimated the number of jobs if various “IP intensive” industries. The study was immediately panned by critics for its broad definitions — grocery stores were the top “ip intensive industry” in the United States, but it became a source of go-to-statistics for every PhRMA and publisher lobby group pushing new privileges and subsidies. (Commentary here: /node/1432)
Noting that the “decisive factors in productivity have shifted from land and capital to know-how, technology and skill,” and the need for an intellectual property system that will “balance the private rights of inventors with the public needs of society” the Holy See gave the following opening statement at the 51th WIPO General Assembly.
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Statement by H.E. Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva
51th Series of Meetings of the WIPO Assemblies
September 24, 2013
Delivered September 24, 2013, during NGO statements on agenda Item 5.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
As regards the Marrakesh treaty, KEI offers its sincere and profound thanks to Secretary Francis Gurry, Ambassador Trevor Clarke, Michelle Woods and Geidy Lung and others members of the WIPO staff for their dedication to a successful conclusion to this difficult negotiation.
This was the Developement Agenda Group (DAG) statement from Monday at the WIPO Geneval Assembly.
Thank you Madam President.First of all, I would like to congratulate you upon your election as Chair of the General Assembly of WIPO. Our group is confident that under your able stewardship we will achieve important results for developing countries, as well as for the intellectual property system.