Transparency

Misc notes on the new Wikileaks cables

These are some notes on some of the new Wikileaks cables. (Much more at http://keionline.org/wikileaks)

May 18, 2009. Pfizer meets asks US embassy to intervene in Philippines debate over drug prices. Embassy agrees to tell Philippines government that "imposition of price controls . . . would be unacceptable.."

http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/05/09MANILA1060.html

Subject: Health Department Patent Remedies to Cut Drug Prices

¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Philippine Department of Health is close to

Notes from the Wikileaks cables (from the US Department of State)

Submitted by James Love on 27. August 2011 - 14:47

These are some tools for searching the US Department of State cables released by Wikileaks.

A Wikileaks page on the cables is available here: http://wlcentral.org/cablegate

KEI recommends this site for searching the cables by key words:

http://cablegatesearch.net/search.php

You might also want to try:

KEI web pages on transparency in trade negotiations

These are some links to KEI web pages on transparency in negotiations.

General

Which IPR norm setting forum is the LEAST transparent

Submitted by James Love on 23. September 2010 - 8:41
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
7% (7 votes)
World Trade Organization (WTO)
6% (6 votes)
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
87% (87 votes)
Total votes: 100

WIPO General Assembly webcasts its meeting

Submitted by James Love on 23. September 2010 - 8:31

The WIPO general Assembly is webcasting this year's General Assembly. This use of Internet technologies really shows how transparent global IPR negotiations can be, and should be. The contrast with ACTA, which is meeting now in secret in Japan, is jarring.

The photo below, taken on September 23, 2010, is from the Convention Center, where the meeting is being held. Earlier this week WIPO Agreed to built its own very large conference facility, which should be open in 2013.

Department of Energy (DOE) FOIA Requests

  • On October 9, 2009, KEI sent a request to the Department of Energy, regarding the Bayh Dole Act, with the following request:

Signatures to the petition to President Obama, regarding transparency of ACTA

Back to the petition

US signatories
Knowledge Ecology International
David Bollier, Onthecommons.org
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
Essential Action
Health Action International (HAI) Global
Public Citizen
Ellen Miller, Sunlight Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
IP Justice
Students for Free Culture
Entertainment Consumers Association
Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure e.V
Nuria Homedes, Salud y Farmacos
Wouter Tebbens, Free Knowledge Institute

Petition to President Obama, regarding transparency of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

The following is a letter that was sent on November 3, 2009 to President Obama, asking that the negotiations regarding ACTA be made more transparent.

While the letter was sent on November 3, 2009, people may add their names to the online version of the petition, by sending a note to Malini Aisola at transparency@keionline.org

For more background on ACTA and the disputes over transparency, see

Transparency

Submitted by James Love on 12. August 2009 - 10:05

In the area of Transparency, KEI works on several different topics, including:

White House: ACTA still “secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy”

Submitted by James Love on 31. July 2009 - 12:00

By James Love, on July 31st, 2009

On Thursday, July 30, 2009, the White House office of the United States Trade Representative denied release of 4 new proposals for text that were circulated in July to “all countries” in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations. The request was limited to documents that were prepared in the past 90 days for purpose of discussion at the July 2009 ACTA negotiating meeting held in Morocco.

USTR located 4 such documents, but denied the FOIA request under 5 USC 552(b)(1). The specific exception cited reads as follows:

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