They go into session today at 10am to discuss how to report the week’s events to the WIPO General Assembly, so officially, nothing is decided yet, but it appears as though WIPO will not be approving a diplomatic conference. Jukka Liedes, who has apparently chaired the WIPO copyright committee for all but two days over a twenty year period, may try to find a way to keep this alive, but many delegates are determined to move on to something else. Continue Reading
In the new June 21 text of the non paper they have just handed out, the Chair has proposed a definition of a signal, finally. It is take from the Brussels Convention, and reads as follows:
( ) “signal” means an electronically-generated carrier capable of transmitting programs;
This is from Article 1 of the Brussels Convention, which reads:
(i) “signal” is an electronically–generated carrier capable of transmitting programmes;
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This is technical. The United States delegation says
“US did oppose deletion of “by any means” so that simultaneous retransmission of traditional broadcasts on the internet is covered…..but we never spoke on deferred retransmissions last night.”
However, in the texts that have been made public, the “by any means” applies to both cases. The negotiations are now being held in secret.
My more recent Huffington Post blog on the negotiations is here, including this update:
Between November 2006 and January 2007, Thailand issued compulsory licenses for two AIDS drugs (efavirnz and the combination of lopinavir+ritonavir) and one antihypertension drug (clopidegrel). The pharmaceutical industry has vehemently objected to these compulsory licenses, and has sought the US… Continue Reading
This is Andrew Pollack’s recent story on Gilead’s new $130 per pill (use daily) for pulmonary arterial hypertension. The price of this drug, which is a once daily pill, is roughly the average per capita income in the United States, leaving nothing else for food, housing, clothing or having a beer at the local bar.
Ted Miller writes about sports in the Seattle PI (a paper I delivered door to door a long time ago). This is his column Intellectual property law begets insanity.
The John Edwards campaign has issued a statement endorsing prizes as an “alternative to patent monopolies” for new drugs and other inventions. Details from the campaign are here. This is a good start. My comment in the Huffington Post is here: John Edwards: Prizes, Not Patent Monopolies.