Patents and Doctors, and the USTR TPP text

The recently obtained US draft text for the intellectual property rights chapter for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) contains provisions that go far beyond the requirements of international agreements as well as the standards of US law itself. One particular area of concern involves the broad definition of patent eligible subject matter that fails to provide for any exception from patentability for surgical methods or procedures. Nor does the draft language contain any exception for the enforcement of surgical method patents. Continue Reading

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United States Patent and Trademark Office’s “Humanitarian Pilot Proposal.” Comments by KEI, MSF, Oxfam, PC and UAEM

The USPTO is considering a pilot program to consider the benefits of providing a voucher for certain accelerated reviews of patent applications, as a reward for licensing patents for humanitarian uses. On March 2, 2011, Anne Guha provided a very useful summary of public comments on the proposal, which is available here: https://www.keionline.org/node/1074

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Interview with David Hammerstein regarding negotiations on WIPO treaty for persons who are blind or have other disabilities

David Hammerstein is a former Member of the European Parliament from Spain. He now works for the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD). Among other things, he is an advocate for a new WIPO copyright treaty for persons who are blind or have other disabilities. The following is an interview with David, carried out from March 3 to March 6 by email.

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Intervention of Brazil to the WTO TRIPS Council (March 2011) providing details about the Brazilian HIV treatment program

On Tuesday, 1 March 2011, Brazil made the following intervention at the WTO Council for TRIPS during discussions of the paragraph 6 system.

Mr. Chairman,
 
Brazil welcomes the opportunity for this follow-up to the review on the implementation of the paragraph 6 system. Our aim here is to assess whether this system is indeed an expeditious solution for countries lacking manufacturing capacity and to address any shortcomings for the system’s effective operation.
 
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Response of WHO to KEI letter regarding McKinsey, vaccine policy and competing interests

On 20 February 2011, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General – Health Security and Environment, World Health Organization, responded to KEI’s letter (16 February 2011) regarding McKinsey, vaccine policy and competing interests. Here is the response in full (email contacts have been redacted).

From: “Fukuda, Keiji”
Date: February 20, 2011 4:14:05 PM GMT+01:00
To: “Thiru Balasubramaniam”
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Seven being considered for new US Register of Copyrights

Apparently it is now down to seven final candidates to be the new US Register of Copyrights. These include two employees of the Copyright Office (Carson and Kasunic), a lawyer in private practice (Fries), a full time professor (Brauneis), a professor/USPTO negotiator (Hughes), a trade negotiator (McCoy), and a representative of a trade association (Perlmutter). By gender, the finalists are two women, and five men.

They are, in alphabetical order:

Robert Brauneis
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WBU suspends participation in WIPO & EU Stakeholder discussions, pending agreement at WIPO on legal framework

On February 26, 2011, the World Blind Union issued a statement announcing it would “suspend participation in the WIPO Stakeholder Platform and EU Stakeholder Dialogue projects, pending agreement at WIPO on a proper binding legal framework.” [See full statement below]. The WBU statement is expected to dramatically change the environment for considering a new WIPO treaty for persons who are blind or have other disabilities.

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