On 11 April 2013, the United States made the following intervention on day 2 of the WIPO inter-sessional meeting on the protection of broadcasting organizations. The US noted the concerns expressed by content holders, technology companies, consumer and civil society groups about “creating extra layers of protection requiring additional clearance of rights”.
This week the WIPO Standing Committee is holding a meeting to consider a possible treaty for broadcasting organizations. KEI thought this treaty negotiation had been blocked by fundamental differences over the purposes and scope of the treaty in 2007, but in the past few years the US Copyright office asked to put the issue back on the SCCR agenda, and subsequently Francis Gurry and Ambassador Trevor Clarke from the WIPO Secretariat have pushed to reach a conclusion, and more recently South Africa, Mexico, Japan and some other countries are now quite active, in favor of a new treaty.
In the final phase of negotiations leading towards the Marrakesh Diplomatic Conference to conclude a Treaty for the Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons (17 June 2013 to 28 June 2013), it is important to take stock of where things stand in respect of the current negotiations.
In a bid to generate sympathy for its defeat in the Supreme Court of India over efforts to evergreen patent protection for the cancer drug imatinib (trade names Gleevec or Glivec) in developing countries, Novartis has been making increasingly spectacular claims as regards its investments in the development of the drug. Continue Reading
There is so much that one could say about today’s decision, it is hard to know where to start.
This is a copy of the negotiating text for the India-EU Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), also referred to as the India/EU FTA. It does not include Article 6, which I assume concerns patents, or have any text for Article 9 on Geographical Indications. The text includes country positions. We are not certain of the date of this text. KEI has some commentary at /node/1692
Consolidated draft India-EU FTA (BTIA)
IPR chapter
Art. 1 – Definition [Agreed]
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) comments
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Trade, March 13, 2013 Hearing on U.S.-India Trade Relations
Name: James Love
Organization: Knowledge Ecology International
Address: 1621 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009
Phone Number: 1.202.332.2670
Contact E-mail Address: James.Love@KEIonline.Org
Title of Hearing: U.S.-India Trade Relations
Introduction
On March 13, 2013, the U.S. House of Representative held a hearing on U.S.-India Trade Relations. Among the several topics under discussion were “the issuance of compulsory licenses, patent revocations, and other policies on pharmaceuticals” in India.
On Monday, 25 March 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in the case, Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis, Inc., et. al. This case had previously been captioned as Federal Trade Commission v. Watson Pharmaceuticals, et. al., but was recaptioned after the combination of Actavis and Watson. KEI filed an amicus brief in support of the FTC which is available here (along with additional background to the case). Continue Reading
The 16th round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) took place at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore in early March.