Over the past several weeks there have been a several cases where some well motivated and knowledgeable persons about copyright policy have expressed criticism of an effort by WIPO to negotiate a treaty for persons who are blind or have other reading disabilities, on the grounds that this is not ambitious enough, and a larger all inclusive treaty on limitations and exceptions should be the target.
On 21 January 2009, WHO released a document (EB124/16 Add.2) relating to the global strategy and plan of action of the public health, innovation and intellectual strand of its work entitled “Proposed time frames and estimated funding needs“. This document is a costing exercise to “estimate funding needs for the implementation of the plan”. Continue Reading
The 13th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) will take place from March 23, 2009 to March 27, 2009 in Geneva at WIPO headquarters. The WIPO Report on the International Patent System is the first substantive agenda item of the 13th session. Continue Reading
The following are KEI's January 26, 2009 remarks at the World Forum on Science and Democracy, held in Belém, Brasil, an event that is affiliated with the World Social Forum, which is also taking place in Belém the same week.
Jennea Ross’s December 28, 2008 report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune caught my eye:
Campuses across the state try new techniques and technology to fight soaring book prices.
One quote from the story follows:
Until this year, University of Minnesota students taking BioC-3021, a biochemistry class, paid $148 for a single, one-semester textbook.
Then professors got smart.
KEI filed comments on Friday on the FDA request for comments on the Priority Review Voucher.
Who is advising Obama during the transition? An army of well connected people. Here are the team leaders for economics and international trade. Many have past public service and current charity work. For those now working in the for-profit sector, we have emphasized only the business ties.
Economics and International Trade Team Leads
Corporate, Investment, Law Firm and Consultant
This was the title the Washington Post today gave the AP story.
This was the title of the FTC Press release:
Today I am at Harvard, attending a workshop titled: Unbranding Medicines: the politics, promise, and challenge of generic drugs. This is put on by the Harvard Interfaculty Initiative on Medicines and Society. The program in general is quite impressive, particularly as regards to the depth of experience and knowledge about the generic drug industry, including its early origins.
I was asked to speak about the use of prizes. The slides from my presentation are here:
6 December 2008
At the close of the final day of the 3rd Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, India, the Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (DCOS) released an agreement entitled the “Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (DCOS) Agreement on Procurement in Support of Interoperability and Open Standards.”
Under the procurement agreement, governments, publicly funded and non-profit institutions agree to promote interoperability and accessibility through the use of open standards.