At the WIPO SCP coffee break, one attendee explained to KEI that the EU has in two places, (1) the regulations on tiered pricing, and (2) the implementation of the WTO’s 30 August 2003 decision on compulsory licensing, created an exception for goods in transit to developing countries.
The European Commissioners for External Trade and for Taxation and Customs Union have replied to TACD in a letter available here:
Dear All,
WIPO’s five day 13th meeting of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) began on Monday, and will go through Friday. The agenda is quite full, as the SCP will consider four important reports written by the Secretariat.
SCP/13/2: Standards and Patents
SCP/13/3: Exclusions from Patentable Subject Matter and Exceptions and Limitations to the Rights
SCP/13/4: The Client-Attorney Privilege
SCP/13/5: Dissemination of Patent Information
On March 23, 2009, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) organized a Briefing on Patents and Standards at WIPO’s 13th meeting of the Standing Committee on Patents (SCP). The meeting features presentations from Dr. Baisheng An, a Research Fellow at the South Centre, George Greve, President of Free Software Foundation Europoe (FSFE), Ahmed Abedel Latif, of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), and James Love, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI). Continue Reading
This note discusses the issue of who should benefit from a WIPO treaty for reading disabled persons. Should it only be people who are blind and visually impaired, as some propose, or should it be more inclusive with regard to other disabilities?
The following report was prepared by KEI, and reviewed by Daniel Sepulveda of USTR:
The International Bureau has released a 47-paged paper in preparation for the 13th Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (23 March-27 March, 2009) entitled Exclusions from patentable subject matter and exceptions and limitations to the rights (SCP/13/3).
In its introduction to the treatment of patent exceptions and public policy, the paper asserts:
Yesterday’s meeting at DOJ on the Ticketmaster Live Nation (TM/LN) merger lasted about 90 minutes. Several civil society NGOs groups showed up for the meeting. There were also several persons from age 17 to 65, who go to live events, play in bands, and preform in local venues. Continue Reading
KEI doing work on the transparency of global trade and treaty negotiations, particularly but not exclusively as relates to IPR negotiations.
One area that has received attention recently (after a year of complaints), seems to be recent USTR denial of access to the negotiating texts of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which is basically an IPR enforcement agreement only marginally related to the emotive title, “counterfeits.”
Michael Geist reports he has obtained under the Canada Access to Information Act” a confidential November 2008 memorandum written by Stockwell Day, the Canada Minister of International Trade, that says in part: