Joint Letter to the 66th World Health Assembly: Follow-up of the report of the CEWG

20 May 2013

Distinguished Delegate,

We urge the World Health Organization (WHO) and its Member States to exercise leadership, ambition and innovative thinking in developing new paradigms to take forward the work of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination (CEWG) in reconciling the objectives of stimulating medical innovation and ensuring access for all.

On 18 December 2012 and 20 December 2012, the World Trade Organization (WTO) undertook a trade policy review of the United States of America. All members of the WTO are subject to review under the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM). The questions raised by WTO Members during the US TPR touched upon on compulsory licensing (including cases of judicial compulsory licensing following eBay v. MercExchange), copyright (Golan v. Holder), the Special 301 report and the Medicines Patent Pool. On 30 April 2013, the WTO released the records of the meeting including WT/TPR/M/275.

As mentioned in our piece, State of Play: Treaty for the Blind negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization, the February 2013 special session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) reached agreement on a cluster of provisions on the Treaty's treatment of the copyright three-step test that resulted in the ARTICLE(S) section contained in SCCR/25/2/Rev.

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".

In 2007 the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) buried the broadcast treaty in cold storage when it decided (WO/GA/34/16) that the convening of a Diplomatic Conference for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations could only take place "after agreement on objectives, specific scope and object of protection has been achieved." Commenting on the broadcast treaty and the break down in negotiations, KEI noted in 2007:

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 the final stretch 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 perhaps important to take note of one important area of divergence, namely, the language contained in Article F of the Draft Text of an International Instrument/Treaty on Limitations and Exceptions for Visually Impaired Persons/Persons with Print Disabilities (SCCR/25/2 REV) w

Informed sources have provided KEI the following draft text of the IP chapter under negotiation between the European Union and India in current free trade agreement talks. KEI will provide analysis of these provisions in due course.

On Tuesday, 5 March 2013, Brazil delivered the following statement at the WTO TRIPS Council in favor of the LDC Group's request for an extension to the transition period. The draft decision, if adopted as outlined in proposal (IP/C/W/583), would permit an LDC member not to apply the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, other than Articles 3, 4 and 5, until they ceased to be an LDC.

Here is Brazilian intervention in full.

On 5 March 2013, the European Union delivered the following statement during WTO TRIPS Council discussions on the LDC group’s request for an extension of the transitional period for TRIPS implementation.

On Tuesday, 5 March 2013, the Ambassador of Nepal made the following intervention at the World Trade Organization's Council for TRIPS, on behalf of the LDC Group on agenda item 11, Request for an Extension of the Transitional Period under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement.

WTO Council for TRIPS Meeting, March 5-6, 2013
Agenda item 11 – Request for an Extension of the Transitional Period under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement

Presentation of Request (IP/C/W/583) by Nepal on Behalf of LDCs Group

Mr. Chairman,

On 5 March 2013, the Government of India made the following intervention at the TRIPS Council under agenda item 11, request for an extension of the transitional period under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement. In their intervention, India unequivocally supported the duly motivated requested submitted by Haiti on behalf of the LDC Group on 5 November 2012 (IP/C/W/583).

India asserted that the "no roll back provision" of the 2005 extension had no place in the TRIPS Agreement and noted that

On 5 March 2013, the Government of India delivered the following statement at the TRIPS Council on agenda item 13, Intellectual Property and Innovation: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, a standalone item tabled by Chile, Chinese Taipei, the Republic of Korea and the United States of America.

We thank the delegations of Chinese Taipei, Korea, the United States and others for tabling an agenda item on "Intellectual Property and Innovation: Small and medium Sized Enterprises" which we understand is a standalone item.

On 26 February 2013, one week before the WTO TRIPS Council (5-6 March 2013) meets to consider the LDC Group's request (IP/C/W/583) for an extension of the transitional period under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement, UNDP and

The following statement was delivered at the 19th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law Of Patents (SCP) after presentations by the secretariats of WIPO, WHO and WTO on the trilateral report.

26 February 2013