Author: Thiru

At least sixteen non-governmental organizations from India representing the blind, the visual impaired, the disabled and the public interest sent a petition to India’s Registrar of Copyrights on November 3, 2008 expressing their support for the World Blind Union proposal for a WIPO Treaty for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons. Here is the letter below in full.

Mr. G. R. Raghavender

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William New of IP-Watch offers a perspicacious insight into WIPO’s upcoming Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights in his piece entitled Participants Ready Agendas For New-Look WIPO Copyright Committee.

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According to a Wall Street Journal piece published on 28 October 2008, Microsoft has engaged in an assiduous campaign to outflank Linux by courting 13 African countries to use its software in government ministries and public schools.

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The penultimate day of the WIPO development committee held in-depth discussions on recommendation 20 of the Development Agenda which states:

To promote norm-setting activities related to IP that support a robust public domain in WIPO’s Member States, including the possibility of preparing guidelines which could assist interested Member States in identifying subject matters that have fallen into the public domain within their respective jurisdictions.

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On Wednesday (9 July 11, 2008) the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) steered away from the detailed financial and human resources discussions that characterized the first two days of discussion to more substantive discussions on competition policy.

The morning session considered recommendation 7 of the WIPO Development Agenda which calls upon WIPO to

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The second session of the the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) is meeting this week in Geneva (July 7-11, 2008). The first meeting of this development committee (March 2008) examined Cluster A (Technical Assistance and Capacity Building) of the 45 approved Development Agenda recommendations. Continue Reading →

After a hiatus of three years, the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) met for its 12th session on June 23, 2008 to June 27, 2008. Given the collapse of the talks to initiate a Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) to harmonize patent law with respect to prior art, novelty, inventive step and grace period, even the most prescient of WIPO watchers were at a loss in prognosticating the outcome of the WIPO SCP. Continue Reading →

At 10:52 AM today, the United States of America (on behalf of Group B, the “rich country” group of WIPO) nominated Maximiliano Santa Cruz of Chile to be chair of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP). Singapore, on behalf of the Asian Group, seconded the nomination of Mr Santa Cruz and proposed candidates from China and Romania as Vice-Chairs. Brazil registered its support for this complement of candidates.

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The WHO IGWG drafting group meeting in Salle XXIII of the Palais des Nations during this week’s World Health Assembly is charged with hammering out a consensus global strategy that would inter alia, secure

an enhanced and sustainable basis for needs-driven, essential health research and development relevant to diseases that disproportinately affect developing countries, proposing clear objectives and priorities for research and development, and estimating funding needs in in this area.

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During the IGWG, BIO, the trade association, a group not yet in official relations with the WHO, was given the right to place four persons inside the closed drafting sessions. One of them was Jon Santamauro, who until recently was a US trade official on intellectual property issues.

“Mr. Santamauro has more than 15 years of experience handling intellectual property issues for the U.S. Government.”

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