SCCR Day 2: Re Limitations and Exceptions (Finally)
After a rather disappointing day 1 of the standing committee on copyright and related rights at WIPO, Day 2 is turning out to be a good constructive day.
After a rather disappointing day 1 of the standing committee on copyright and related rights at WIPO, Day 2 is turning out to be a good constructive day.
It is 10:25 AM here in Geneva and the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) has yet to begin. The buzz in the hallways indicates that Finland, Italy, Senegal and Canada are vying for leadership of this Committee which will have important ramifications for WIPO’s work on limitations and exceptions, the public domain, competition and access to knowledge. From our perspective, we hope that the this Committee will augur in the fresh winds of change that will change the direction of WIPO’s work on copyright and related rights towards a positive agenda.
By resolution WHA 59.24, the WHO’s Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property (IGWG) has the goal of producing a Global Strategy and Plan of Action that will implement the CIPIH report recommendations and “secure an enhanced and sustainable basis for needs-driven, essential health research and development relevant to diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries, proposing cle Continue Reading
WIPO Member States attending the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property have been invited to a tequila tasting event on 6 March 2008 at the Hotel de Paix coinciding with the candidacy of the Mexican candidate (Jorge Amigo) to the position of Director General of WIPO. The text of the invitation is reproduced below.
His Excellency Mr. Samak Sundaravej Prime Minister Government House Nakornpratom Rd. Dusit, Bangkok Thailand 10300 His Excellency Mr. Chaiya Sasomsap Minister of Public Health Tiwanont Rd. Talad Kwan District Nontaburi Province 11000 Thailand March 4, 2008 Re: Thailand Compulsory Licenses… Continue Reading
The newly created WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) is meeting this week in Geneva from 3 March – 7 March 2008. The chair of the CDIP is Ambassador Trevor Clarke of Barbados. Today the discussion has focused mainly on the rules of procedure and modalities governing this Committee. Unfortunately, finding the 45 Development Agenda recommendations adopted at the WIPO General Assembly in September/October 2007 on the WIPO website is not easy. Continue Reading
KEI Statement to the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP)
March 3, 2008
In a blog posted today on the Huffington Post, I could have, should have, elaborated a bit on the few U.S. journalists who had written about the trade disputes involving patents on medicines, before AIDS activists began their zaps of Gore’s presidential campaign in June of 1999.
During the current SCCR 17 discussions on copyright limitations and exceptions, some delegates are unfamiliar with the longstanding efforts to engage WIPO delegates in this issue. Here are some rough notes of *some* of the times when this issue has… Continue Reading
Without much fanfare save a press release bereft of critical detail, the WIPO Secretariat hosted an international round table on from 26-27 November 2007 which brought together 15 leading economists to discuss the “economics of intellectual property (IP)”.
According to the press release,