WTO TRIPS Council (March 2016) to discuss Intellectual Property and Innovation: Education and Diffusion

The World Trade Organization (WTO) will convene its Council for TRIPS (TRIPS Council) from Tuesday, 1 March 2016 to Wednesday, 2 March 2016. Australia, the European Union, Switzerland and the United States of America have submitted a written request for the item “Intellectual Property and Innovation: Education and Diffusion” to be placed on the proposed agenda.

WTO/AIR/IP/6
5 FEBRUARY 2016

SUBJECT: COUNCIL FOR TRIPS

THE NEXT MEETING OF THE COUNCIL FOR TRIPS WILL BE HELD IN THE CENTRE WILLIAM RAPPARD ON 1-2 MARCH 2016. THE MEETING WILL START AT
Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Obama asks the Senate to ratify the Marrakesh treaty for the blind

This is the announcement.

For Immediate Release February 10, 2016

TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:

With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, I transmit herewith the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled, done at Marrakesh on June 27, 2013 (Marrakesh Treaty). I also transmit, for the information of the Senate, a report of the Secretary of State with respect to the Marrakesh Treaty that includes a summary of its provisions.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Feasibility study on a TDR pooled fund for R&D to be released on 20 February 2016

In May 2014, the 67th World Health Assembly (WHA) of the World Health Organization (WHO) passed Decision WHA67(15) providing WHO the mandate to explore the feasibility of creating a voluntary pooled fund fund on R&D hosted by the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). The Decision outlined three principles guiding the consideration of the pooled fund:

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Xtandi 2016 March-In Request

Today Knowledge Ecology International and the Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT) petitioned the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, and the National Institutes of Health, asking that they exercise either their royalty-free, non-exclusive license or federal “march-in” rights to end the monopoly on an expensive prostate cancer drug, enzalutamide, marketed as Xtandi by Astellas, a Japanese pharmaceutical company.

Xtandi was invented at UCLA on federal grants from the NIH and DoD.

Continue Reading

Knowledge Ecology International joins amicus brief on non-copyrightability of model laws and statutes

Washington, DC — On January 11, 2016, Knowledge Ecology International joined Public Knowledge and the American Library Association in an amicus curiae brief that argued that the contents of model laws, once enacted into statute, cannot be protected by copyright. The brief was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in the case of ASTM International v. Public.Resource.Org.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized