While the 6th Round of negotiations of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is taking place in Seoul, Republic of Korea from November 4-6, 2009, the 5th session of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) met from November 2-4, 2009.
The final stretch of 2009 ushers in a host of meetings at Geneva based institutions including the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement, the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property, the WTO Ministerial, the WHO Expert Working Group and the Standing Committee on Copyright. To keep abreast of the hive of activity emanating from WIPO, WHO and WTO, here is a roadmap to keep track of the various meetings.
November 2, 2009
African-Arab Seminar on Copyright Limitations and Exceptions: Addressing the Needs of Affected Constituencies
On October 12, 2009, the “Industry Government Forum on Access to Medicines” (IGFAM) was launched. The UK Minister for International Development, MP Mike Foster made a a speech to launch this initiative which is reproduced below.
Presentations were also made by Pfizer (Ponni Subbiah), GSK (Abbas Hussain), Rajiv Venkayya (Gates Foundation), Prashant Yadav (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Suerie Moon (Research Fellow and Doctoral Candidate, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University).
The Wellcome Trust convened an “Opinion Formers Conference” on “Counterfeit Medicines: Perspectives and Action” on Monday 26 October 2009. Continue Reading
The World Intellectual Property Organization has convened an “Open-Ended Forum on Proposed Development Agenda Projects” (October 13-14, 2009). According to WIPO,
On October 1, 2009 the WIPO General Assembly renewed the mandate of the Intergovernmental Committee on Generic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore. Here below is the consensus decision reached by the General Assembly.
Bearing in mind the Development Agenda recommendations, the WIPO General Assembly agrees that that the mandate of the WIPO intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore be renewed as follows:
India delivered the following intervention at MSF’s workshop at the World Trade Organization Public Forum today. The title of the MSF workshop was “Controversy at customs – the detention of medicines in transit: what impact on access to medicines?”
Controversy at customs – the detention of medicines in transit: what impact on access to medicines?
Wednesday 30 September 2009, 14:15 to 16:15
WTO building, Room A
This is the general statement delivered by the representative of the World Blind Union today (September 29, 2009) at the WIPO General Assemblies.
WBU statement:
The World Blind Union is the worldwide organisation representing the interests of 160 million blind and partially sighted persons in 177 member countries.
The following is the general statement that KEI delivered to the WIPO General Assembly on September 29, 2009.
General Statement of KEI
WIPO 2009 General Assembly
September 29, 2009
ACTA
Outside of WIPO, some countries are involved in secretive negotiations on a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). KEI asks WIPO to adopt a resolution calling for an end to the secrecy of this negotiation. Global norms for the enforcement of IP should be transparent and benefit from comments from the public before decisions are made on substantive provisions.
This is the intervention made by Ecuador, on behalf of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean (GRULAC) region, concerning the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) on Friday, September 25, 2009.
AG/47
Comité Permanente sobre Derecho de Autor y Derechos Conexos (SCCR)
Declaración GRULAC
Versión 25/Sep/2009 (13:30hs)
Gracias Señor Presidente:
Esta declaración la realizamos en nombre del Grupo de América Latina y del Caribe.