On November 25, 2008, I was invited to give a talk in Vienna, at the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce (the WKO). The event was organized by Eva Lichtenberger, a Green Party MEP. Eva also spoke, and gave a great talk, in German. Her slides were in English, and I’ll add them when I can. The outline of my talk is given below.
In their recent book on the Health Impact Fund,* Aidan Hollis and Thomas Pogge discuss a number of issues. This is what they say about compulsory licensing of patents.
Page 53-54
KEI will later issue a more detailed comment on the Health Impact Fund. One of the key issues that will be addressed is the way that Hollis and Pogge propose turning the prize fund proposals that are based upon open licensing of patents into something that reinforces the monopoly supply chain.
We understand that one motivation for doing this was to attract support from some large pharmaceutical companies, and the European governments that protect them.
KEI has filed comments on the EC’s Green Paper on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy. Here are pdf and odt copies. The html version follows below. Comments of Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) on the GREEN PAPER: Copyright in the Knowledge… Continue Reading
At KEI Washington, DC offices
After a hiatus of three years, the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) met for its 12th session on June 23, 2008 to June 27, 2008. Given the collapse of the talks to initiate a Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) to harmonize patent law with respect to prior art, novelty, inventive step and grace period, even the most prescient of WIPO watchers were at a loss in prognosticating the outcome of the WIPO SCP. Continue Reading
The WHO IGWG drafting group meeting in Salle XXIII of the Palais des Nations during this week’s World Health Assembly is charged with hammering out a consensus global strategy that would inter alia, secure
an enhanced and sustainable basis for needs-driven, essential health research and development relevant to diseases that disproportinately affect developing countries, proposing clear objectives and priorities for research and development, and estimating funding needs in in this area.
During the IGWG, BIO, the trade association, a group not yet in official relations with the WHO, was given the right to place four persons inside the closed drafting sessions. One of them was Jon Santamauro, who until recently was a US trade official on intellectual property issues.
“Mr. Santamauro has more than 15 years of experience handling intellectual property issues for the U.S. Government.”
Tom Giovanetti kindly sent me a link to his latest NGO bashing. This one titled: “IP skeptic NGOs as Marxists.” This is his attempt to label the various public health groups as Marxists, and his brief attempt to understand or describe a February 2005 proposal for one possible approach R&D Treaty.
First, I have told Tom Giovanetti several times that while his hysterical red baiting is amusing at times, it is also sometimes offensive and boring.
A Panel Discussion on Policy Approaches to Intellectual Property Enforcement and the Impact on Trade Agreements
Organized by the Property Rights Alliance, this event was hosted by the Intellectual Property Caucus and sponsored by Rep. Tom Feeney.
Date: 12:00-1:30pm October 4, 2007
Venue: Rayburn House Office Building, Washington DC
Attendance: Congressional staff, industry representatives, other interested parties.