Author: Thiru

Nestled at the end Intellectual Property Watch’s (IP-Watch) brilliant reportage of a US Chamber of Commerce event – “Has the Sun Set on Multilateral Rulemaking on IP?” – is a quote by Patrick Kilbride (Executive Director, U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global IP Center) praising the efforts of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in WTO negotiations on the LDC waiver for pharmaceutical products.

IP-Watch reported,

Continue Reading →

In the early hours of Thursday morning, 15 October 2015, the WIPO General Assembly adopted the following decision related to the future work of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). There was no consensus on future work so the Assembly directed the SCCR to “continue its work” on the protection of broadcasting organizations and copyright limitations and exceptions.

Continue Reading →

The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) General Assembly is currently engaged five separate informal consultations on the following topics: 1) Lisbon Union, 2) the future of the Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, 3) the work program of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), 4) the Design Law Treaty and 5) WIPO External Offices.

Continue Reading →

The WTO TRIPS Council meets from Thursday, 15 October 2015 to Friday, 16 October 2015. The hot topics for consideration include agenda item 13 (Request from the LDC Group for an indefinite exemption from WTO IP obligations to provide patents for pharmaceutical products, agenda item 8 (non-violation and situation complaints), agenda item 7 (Review of the Paragraph 6 system) and agenda item 14 (a discussion item co-sponsored by Australia, the European Union and the United States on “Intellectual Property and Innovation: Entrepreneurialism and New Technologies).

Continue Reading →

On Wednesday, 7 October 2015, the United States of America delivered the following statement on agenda item 12 (Report on the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights). The US expressed support for a broadcasting treaty under a signal-based approach, focused on “unauthorized simultaneous or near-simultaneous retransmission of broadcast signals to the public over any type of platform, including the Internet.”

On copyright limitations and exceptions, the US expressed support for

Continue Reading →

On Monday, 5 October 2015, Brazil delivered the following opening statement on behalf of the Group of Latin and the Caribbean Group (GRULAC) at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) General Assembly.

Statement Delivered by the Delegation of Brazil on behalf of GRULAC

“Mr President,

1. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Latin American and the Caribbean Group (GRULAC).

Continue Reading →

On Friday, 11 September 2015 five public interest groups (Health GAP, Knowledge Ecology International, Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam America and Public Citizen) sent a letter to Ambassador Michael Froman (United States Trade Representative) and Michelle Lee, (Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office) requesting that the Obama administration disclose its position on the LDC request for an extension of their pharmaceutical production transition period under the WTO TRIPS Agreement.

Continue Reading →

In a closely watched announcement, the European Commission issued a press release on Thursday, 10 September 2015 supporting the indefinite exemption for least developing country Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from TRIPS obligations on pharmaceutical products. These TRIPS obligations include pharmaceutical patents, pharmaceutical test data protection, exclusive marketing rights and the mailbox provisions.

The LDC Group, in their February 2015 submission to the WTO TRIPS Council, requested the following:

Continue Reading →