As the 63rd World Health Assembly (WHA) opens on May 17, 2010, WHO member countries will meet to consider matters of great moment including such topics as ‘counterfeit medical products’, pandemic influenza preparedness (sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits) and the Report of the WHO Expert Working Group on R&D Financing. Continue Reading
12 May 2010
Statement of Knowledge Ecology International on possible WTO disputes against the EU seizures of goods in transit
Thiru Balasubramaniam, Geneva Representative
“In a world with territorial patent rights, it is important that the rules for ‘goods in transit’ permit the transport of medicines from places where they can be made to places where they will be used. The EU’s systematic seizure of at least 17 drug consignments is indefensible and undermines the very principle of free trade, the raison d’être of the World Trade Organization.
On April 23, 2010 and May 27-28, 2010, WIPO will hold open-ended consultations on copyright limitations and exceptions for persons with print disabilities and on the protection of audiovisual performances as mandated by the conclusions of the 19th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR).
On February 18, 2010, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a trade association whose members include the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) prepared a 498 page submission to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) detailing their concerns with 39 countries or territories which the IIPA believed were not providing adequate and effective protection of their Continue Reading
Friday, 12 February 2010
Around 100 Members of the World Trade Organization attended informal consultations today in Room E (a mainstay of the green room consultations) to discuss the implementation of Paragraph 6 mechanism which was created to be an “an expeditious solution” for “WTO members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector” that faced difficulties in in “making effective use of compulsory licensing under the TRIPS Agreement”.
WIPO
SCP/14/9 Rev.
ORIGINAL: English
DATE: January 29, 2010
WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION
GENEVA
STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE LAW OF PATENTS
Fourteenth Session
Geneva, January 25 to 29, 2010
As mentioned, before WIPO is holding a symposium on February 8, 2010 on the “Evolution of the Regulatory Framework of Test Data – From the Property of the Intellect to the Intellect of Property”. The symposium will be held from 9:30 AM to 5 PM in Room B of WIPO headquarters.
The program of the symposium can be found here: http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/mdocs/en/wipo_ip_lss1_ge_10/wipo_ip_lss1_ge_10_inf_1_prov.pdf
After a around 10 hours of informal consultations today, it appears that the 14th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) has not reached consensus on new items for the Committee’s consideration. From sources close to the negotiation, much of the wrangling dealt with whether to preserve the non-exhaustive nature of the list of issues identified at SCP 12 and SCP 13. Continue Reading
The members of the “Asian Like-Minded Countries” group are: India, Indonesia, Iran and Pakistan.
Agenda 8: Future Work
1. [Following a proposal by the Chair,] the Committee
(a) reaffirmed that the non-exhaustive list of issues identified at the twelfth session of the SCP held in June 2008, and updated at its 13 session, would remain open for further elaboration and discussion at its next session(1);
Around 4:20 PM CET, the following draft text was made available for for Member States’ consideration. Currently, the countries are in informals considering the following text.
Around 5:50 PM, a draft text entitled “Suggestion by Asian Like-Minded Countries” was made available.
Among the key amendments suggested was the following language:
“Comments of Member States and Observers would be reflected in annexures appended to the respective studies”