Knowledge Ecology International

On Wednesday, October 14, 2015, KEI staff and members of Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicines team demonstrated outside of the White House and USTR, urging the administration, especially USTR and Ambassador Michael Froman, to support a request for a permanent drug patent waiver for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) at the WTO.

Below are images from the protest action, also available in higher resolution here. And, yes, you can use these photos under any creative commons or wikimedia license.

Continue Reading →

In the early hours of Thursday morning, 15 October 2015, the WIPO General Assembly adopted the following decision related to the future work of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). There was no consensus on future work so the Assembly directed the SCCR to “continue its work” on the protection of broadcasting organizations and copyright limitations and exceptions.

Continue Reading →

Below you will find a collection of articles in the press and commentary by KEI relating to the request for LDC patent exemption on pharmaceutical products at the WTO.

KEI commentary

• October 14, 2015. Senator Sherrod Brown letter to USTR, supporting permanent waiver of WTO drug patent rules for LDCs
• October 12, 2015. US, AU and CA try to block WTO LDC drug patent waiver because PhRMA’s not happy enough with the TPP

Continue Reading →

Attached is a letter, dated October 14, 2015, from Senator Sherrod Brown to USTR’s Ambassador Michael Froman, urging USTR to support a permanent waiver of WTO drug patent rules, for Least Developed Countries. Negotiations on this issue begin formally on October 15, 2015, during a meeting of the WTO TRIPS Council.

Among the money quotes:

Continue Reading →

This is a copy of recommendations for an Indian National IPR Policy, written by the “IP Think Tank,” which was constituted by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion(DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. A copy scanned from a hard copy is here.

The members of the IPR Think Tank were:

• Justice Prabha Sridevan (Retd) – Chairperson
• Mrs. Prathiba M. Singh, Senior Advocate – Member
• Mr. Narendra K. Sabharwal – Member & Convener

Continue Reading →

The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) General Assembly is currently engaged five separate informal consultations on the following topics: 1) Lisbon Union, 2) the future of the Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, 3) the work program of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), 4) the Design Law Treaty and 5) WIPO External Offices.

Continue Reading →

The WTO TRIPS Council meets from Thursday, 15 October 2015 to Friday, 16 October 2015. The hot topics for consideration include agenda item 13 (Request from the LDC Group for an indefinite exemption from WTO IP obligations to provide patents for pharmaceutical products, agenda item 8 (non-violation and situation complaints), agenda item 7 (Review of the Paragraph 6 system) and agenda item 14 (a discussion item co-sponsored by Australia, the European Union and the United States on “Intellectual Property and Innovation: Entrepreneurialism and New Technologies).

Continue Reading →