Apple obtains compulsory license on patents owned by WARF, by District Court Judge in Wisconsin

On June 6, 2017, Judge William Martin Conley, a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, issued a compulsory license allowing Apple Computers to use a patent it had infringed, owned by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), in return for an ongoing royally. Apple was found to infringe U.S. Patent No. 5,781,752, titled “Table based data speculation circuit for parallel processing computer. WARF asked for a permanent injunction to prevent future infringement. Continue Reading

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Notes on 2017 Special 301 Submissions

Wednesday, March 8, 2017, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) will hold the first Special 301 Hearing of the Trump administration. This year, USTR received 63 submissions in advance fo the hearing from governments, civil society organizations, and industry groups.

This blog post pulls out interesting selections from the various submissions, and includes as attachments the submissions of selected organizations.
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WTO Trade Policy Review: Members question the United States on compulsory licensing, Bayh-Dole, UNHLP & Section 337

In December 2016, during the twilight of President Barack Obama’s 44th presidency, the World Trade Organization (WTO) conducted a Trade Policy Review (TPR) of the United States of America. All members of the WTO are subject to review under the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM). The TPRM takes place in the “Trade Policy Review Body which is actually the WTO General Council — comprising the WTO’s full membership — operating under special rules and procedures” (Source: WTO, Trade Policy Reviews: Brief Introduction).

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Feb 24, 2017 – U.S. History, Experiences, and Prospects of Compulsory Licensing of Medical Patents


On Friday, February 24, 2017, KEI hosted a meeting exploring compulsory licensing in the United States.

Title: History, Experiences, and Prospects of Compulsory Licensing on Medical Patents in the United States
Date: Friday February 24, 2017
Location: Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health
700 Second St. NE (near Union Station)
Washington, DC 20002

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9 November 2016 – WTO TRIPS Council – EU’s intervention on Intellectual Property and Innovation – Regional Innovation Models

Australia, the European Union, Japan, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei and the United States requested the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to place an item on the agenda of the November 2016 TRIPS Council agenda entitled – “Intellectual Property and Innovation: Regional Innovation Models. On 9 November 2016, the European Union delivered the following intervention on regional innovations models. Intellectual Property and Innovation have been on the agenda of the TRIPS Council since 2012.

IP AND INNOVATION: REGIONAL INNOVATION MODELS

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SCP24: KEI statement on exceptions and limitations to patent rights

SCP24

27 June 2016

KEI statement on exceptions and limitations to patent rights

In relation to limitations and exceptions, we recall Brazil’s prescient submission, document SCP/14/7 (tabled in January 2010) which called attention to the lack of policy coherence in a world where in certain international fora, countries endorse the use of compulsory licensing to promote access to medicines for all, and in separate fora, criticize developing countries for actually considering or issuing such compulsory licenses.

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