Author: James Love

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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In any given year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) grants marketing approval to new drugs. The most important category* are those classified as “new molecular entities” or NMEs. Chen Xingzhi has collected data on the 2010 NMEs included in the FDA Orange Book here: http://goo.gl/W78Tbk. Some of the data are summarized below:

• Among products listed in the FDA Orange Book in 2010, 15 were classified as NMEs.
• Among all of the NMEs, 43 patents were listed in the FDA Orange Book, covering 12 of the 15 products.

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Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) is a non-profit organization that focuses on human rights and social dimensions of knowledge governance. Our web page (https://www.keionline.org) provides extensive background on our operations. We maintain offices in Washington, DC and in Geneva Switzerland, and are engaged in a number of initiatives, disputes and negotiations involving intellectual property rights, innovation, and other aspects of the production, management and governance of knowledge resources.

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KEI Closing statement
Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or otherwise Print Disabled
June 27, 2013
Diplomatic Conference in Marrakesh Morocco

This was read by James Love (a video of this available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNcnx0iME1U)

Mr. President. KEI is a non-profit organization that focuses on human rights and the public interest in the governance of knowledge.

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