NGO Statement on WHO governance and the Management of Conflicts of Interest and the Future of Financing for WHO.
May 18, 2011
We write to express our concerns about governance of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other public health bodies, as regards the management of conflicts of interest.
During today’s discussion at the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) on patent quality KEI make four points in its intervention.
1. WIPO should consider gathering information on the costs of litigation to challenge the validity of patents.
2. WIPO should consider creating a database to share information on the cases where litigation has resulted findings that patent claims as invalid.
On April 19, 2011, Dr Kumariah Balasubramaniam died at his home in Sri Lanka. Dr. Balasubramaniam, known to many as Dr. Bala, was described by Professor Colvin Gooneratne as “one of the most knowledgeable, resolute, articulate, versatile, resilient and in many other ways exceptionally brilliant health activists [the world] has produced.” My tribute to Dr. Bala is in the Huffington Post. Prof. Continue Reading
The USTR Special 301 Report was issued today. The full report is here, the USTR web page on the report is here, and a link to the USTR press release about the report is here. Continue Reading
On April 26, 2011, Senator Wyden released a redacted version of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on ACTA that has been the subject to an ongoing Freedom of Information ACT (FOIA) dispute with USTR.
(More context here, here and here).
This is a link to the report that USTR claimed they could not release because of restrictions on its use by Senator Wyden.
/wp-content/uploads/RedactedACTACRSMemotoSenWyden.pdf
On August 7, 2008, Stewart Baker, the Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, sent a one page letter and a three page “Policy Position on Border Measures of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.”
Stewart Baker was the General Counsel of the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1994, and was appointed the first Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by George W Bush.
KEI just received the attached letter from the Executive Office of the President’s Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) rejecting our appeal of USTRs decision to withhold a study by the Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Service on ACTA that was done for Senator Wyden.
/wp-content/uploads/USTR_20April2011_FOIA_APPEAL–CaseFile_no_10101455.pdf
Ambassador Ron Kirk holds the office of United States Trade Representative (USTR) in the White House. On March 9, 2011, he testified before the US Senate Finance Committee on the 2011 Trade Agenda. Several members of the Committee provided follow up questions, and Ambassador Kirk has answered them. A full copy of the responses are available here:
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Attached is a PDF of the proposal by the European Union that was presented at the April 15, 2011 informals in Geneva, held at the US Embassy. The European Union now proposes that WIPO adopt a soft non-binding recommendation on cross border sharing of accessible works, and then monitor progress on the issue for 3 to 5 years. Continue Reading