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

On January 8, 2013, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issued a joint statement on "remedies for standards-essential patents subject to voluntary F/RAND commitments. (Copy of statement here).

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

The following WTO airgram WTO/AIR/4075/REV.1 (22 February 2013) contains the agenda for the upcoming WTO Council for TRIPS meeting to be held in Geneva from Tuesday, 5 March 2013 to Wednesday, 6 March 2013. The March 2013 session of the TRIPS Council will discuss the LDC Group's request (IP/C/W/583) for an extension of the transitional period under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement under agenda item 11.

On 17 October 2012, the State Intellectual Property Office of China submitted the following comments to the Electronic Forum of WIPO's Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) in relation to the future work of the Committee. The written submission focused on: 1) Exceptions and Limitations to Patent Rights, 2. Quality of Patents and 3. Patents and Health. These points were encapsulated in China's general intervention today.

[English translation by WIPO]

The 19th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) meets in Geneva from 25 February 2013 to 28 February 2013. The 18th session of the SCP ended on a contentions note as WIPO member states could not agree upon the future work of the Committee. In fact, SCP 19 was initially scheduled for November 2012 but was delayed till February 2013 as WIPO's membership thought informal discussions were required to produce a successful outcome for the future work of the patent committee.

WIPO is spending five days in a special session to work on the text for a treaty on copyright exceptions for persons who are blind or have other disabilities.

KEI has obtained a copy of the latest version as of Friday morning, which is attached below.

The first four days have been consumed with highly technical but important debates of the international rules for copyright exceptions. The US and the EU are demanding that all sorts of language be put into the treaty referring to a three step test to restrict the use of exceptions.

These are KEI's February 17, 2013 comments on the the Bayer appeal of the compulsory license on Nexavar patents.

The dispute is Bayer Corporation v Natco Pharma Limited, and is being heardbefore the Intellectual Property Appellate Board At Chennai (O.R.A. no. 35/PT/2012).

Attached below is the version of the negotiating text from 20 February 2013. It includes several new or edited footnotes. We expect the WIPO Special Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) to discuss the new text at the plenary which is scheduled to commence at 10, Wednesday, 21 February 2013.

Footnote 10 is placed within Article E of the draft treaty text on "Importation of Accessible Format Copies" which states

For the past year, a treaty on copyright exceptions for persons who are blind or have other disabilities has been hung up on demands by the European Union to insert provocative language on the so called "three step test" in copyright into the treaty. The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is in the middle of a similar dispute, with the US pushing language that would place the three step test on top of all copyright limitations and exceptions, including those set out a particular cases in the Berne Convention.

On Tuesday, 19 February 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in the case, Bowman v. Monsanto. This case involves the application of the patent exhaustion doctrine to self-replicating technology, in this case, seeds.

On 28 January 2013, the following question tabled by MEP Franziska Keller (Verts/ALE) to the European Union on the EU's position on extension of WTO TRIPS Agreement transition period for Least Developed Countries was made available.

The WIPO Special Session negotiating the text of a new treaty on copyright exceptions for persons with disabilities is meeting from February 18 to 22. Yesterday all of the negotiations were behind closed doors, but this morning WIPO made public a copy of the revised negotiating text (available here: http://www.keionline.org/node/1651).

Attached below is the version of the negotiating text from February 18. It includes several new or edited footnotes.

Fn5. concerns language on translation.

Fns 6 and 9 are proposals for language that would permit a country to limit exceptions to cases where "the particular accessible format, cannot be obtained commercially under reasonable terms for beneficiary persons in that [Member State’s] market."

Fns 7 and 8 are proposals to address the delivery of an accessible work to a person in another country. These are among the more contentiousness issues this week.

As mentioned in a previous piece, the trilateral report by the secretariats of the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Intersections between public health, intellectual property and trade, covers a lot of ground including but not limited to: 1) the global burden of disease and global health risks, 2) health and human rights, 3) access to essential medicines: an indicator for the fulfillment of the right to