One of the most important battles being waged both inside and outside of the IGWG concerns the nature of competition for the supply of inexpensive medicines and vaccines.
The large pharma companies with well-known brands and big marketing and distribution systems want to marginalize developing country generic suppliers, as actual or potential competitors. This plays out in various ways. For example:
https://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/b_b_igwg/working_document_barbados_bolivia.pdf April 2008 According to resolution WHA60.30 on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property, the Director-General of the WHO is asked: (4) to encourage the development of proposals for health-needs driven research and development for discussion at the Intergovernmental Working… Continue Reading
Following the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) which for much of its existence has endeavored to unsuccessfully hammer out a Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations has provided a window into the human condition replete with incidents of humor, frustration and hope. Continue Reading
The WIPO Coordination Committee will meet in extraordinary session on May 13-14, 2008, to “nominate a person for appointment by the General Assembly as WIPO Director General. The nominations received from WIPO Member States in response to the Circular C.N. 2833 are now available.”
Since nobody really wants to work on the casters treaty (no matter what they say) today we’re talking about what should be on the table, the work program for the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights at WIPO.
To push back the excellent proposal on limitations and exceptions made by Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Nicaragua yesterday the EU is proposing to add:
This text was handed at around 11 AM on Wednesday morning. Apologies for any typos. This was typed by 3 different people from the hard copy distributed by the International Bureau.
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STANDING COMMITTEE ON COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS
Sixteenth Session, March 10 to 12, 2008-03-12
DRAFT CONCLUSIONS
Protection of audiovisual performances
After a rather disappointing day 1 of the standing committee on copyright and related rights at WIPO, Day 2 is turning out to be a good constructive day.
It is 10:25 AM here in Geneva and the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) has yet to begin. The buzz in the hallways indicates that Finland, Italy, Senegal and Canada are vying for leadership of this Committee which will have important ramifications for WIPO’s work on limitations and exceptions, the public domain, competition and access to knowledge. From our perspective, we hope that the this Committee will augur in the fresh winds of change that will change the direction of WIPO’s work on copyright and related rights towards a positive agenda.
By resolution WHA 59.24, the WHO’s Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property (IGWG) has the goal of producing a Global Strategy and Plan of Action that will implement the CIPIH report recommendations and “secure an enhanced and sustainable basis for needs-driven, essential health research and development relevant to diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries, proposing cle Continue Reading
WIPO Member States attending the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property have been invited to a tequila tasting event on 6 March 2008 at the Hotel de Paix coinciding with the candidacy of the Mexican candidate (Jorge Amigo) to the position of Director General of WIPO. The text of the invitation is reproduced below.