Statement by Brazil at June 2012 WTO TRIPS Council on the state of play of WIPO negotiations on a Treaty for the Blind

This was the statement delivered by Brazil on 5 June 2012 at the WTO Council for TRIPS under Agenda Item L-Copyright Limitations and Exceptions: Ongoing Negotiations At WIPO-Briefing By Brazil and the United States.

The following is the Brazilian intervention.

Last April, the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, visited the United States.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized
1

The USPTO/DOC’s liberal and misleading definition of IP-Intensive industries is designed to influence policy debates

At yesterday’s TACD event, USPTO and KEI discussed the report by the Department of Commerce’s Economics and Statistics Administration and the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Intellectual Property and employment. The report, titled: Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus, has been widely quoted, including these bullets from its executive summary:

  • IP-intensive industries accounted for about $5.06 trillion in value added, or 34.8 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), in 2010.
  • Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Recent ICE Press regarding counterfeit of pharmaceutical drugs

This is a rough list of the recent ICE press releases mentioning counterfeit and pharmaceutical. It is quite clear that the overwhelming majority of counterfeit busts involve Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs, a problem that will probably resolve itself once the Pfizer patents on Viagra expire.

In my quick read of the ICE press releases, I found just 12 pharmaceutical counterfeiting cases in the ICE press releases from 2009 to May 2012, with 14 defendants.

Uncategorized

Man gets three years probation, no jail time, for importing counterfeit drugs into USA

Despite very tough laws on the books in the US for counterfeiting, which include possible life sentences for some offenses, and the very aggressive federal PR campaign against counterfeit drugs, the US is not always that tough on the trade in counterfeit drugs. In this recent case, Curtis Henry was sentenced to three years probation.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1205/120518rochester.htm

News Releases
MAY 18, 2012
ROCHESTER, NY
Upstate New York man sentenced for importing counterfeit pharmaceuticals

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Agenda of TRIPS Council meeting (5-6 June 2012): Information exchange on counterfeits, WIPO negotiations on copyright L&Es

The following WTO airgram WTO/AIR/3943/REV.1 (23 May 2012) contains the agenda for the upcoming WTO Council for TRIPS meeting to be held in Geneva from Tuesday, 5 June 2012 to Wednesday, 6 June 2012. The airgram notes that the United States has made a written request for an agenda item on the “exchange of information on securing supply chains against counterfeit goods” (agenda item K). Brazil and the United States made a joint request for an additional agenda item (L) on “copyright limitations and exceptions: ongoing negotiations at WIPO-Briefing by Brazil and the United States”. Continue Reading

Uncategorized

What’s a counterfeit? And how many counterfeit drugs are there?

Donald McNeil has an article in the New York Times that appeared in print on May 22, 2012 (page D6 of the New York edition) with the headline: “Malaria: Fake and Substandard Drugs Grow as Threat to Fight Disease.” A web version is available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/health/policy/fake-and-substandard-drugs-grow-as-threat-to-fight-malaria.html

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

KEI Statement on WHA resolution on Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination

KEI Statement on World Health Assembly resolution on Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination

A number of developing countries worked together to push the World Health Assembly to create a member state process to consider the implementation of the CEWG. The most important CEWG recommendations are to begin work on a new WHO Convention on R&D financing, and to de-link R&D costs from drug prices.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized