KEI Statement to WIPO GA on Advisory Committee on Enforcement
This was read today, September 30, 2011, at the WIPO GA
Agenda Item 33 (iii), the Advisory Committee on Enforcement
Author: James Love
KEI comments on work of Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP), WIPO GA 2011
This was read today, September 30, 2011, at the WIPO GA
Agenda Item 33(i) Standing Committee on the Law of Patents
KEI agrees with the perceptive and constructive comments offered by South Africa on behalf of the Africa Group, and India, on behalf of the Development Agenda Group (DAG).
2011 WIPO General Assembly begins week long meeting
The 49th WIPO General Assembly began today, in a packed hall of the CICG convention center. The agenda and other documents for the meeting is available here. The Director General, Francis Gurry, began his talk focusing on financial challenges, and, among other things, several references to the work of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). Gurry talked about progress on the AV treaty, and progress on an “instrument” for persons with disabilities. He talked about the new SCCR work program on the broadcast treaty. He did not mention the WIPO work on libraries, education or other copyright limitations and exceptions issues.
The meeting is webcast. Countries have been given 5 minutes for opening statements.
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DHHS Secretary Donna Shalala to Rep Jan Schakowsky in 2000, on WHO access to fed funded patent rights
In 2000, President Clinton asked Donna Shalala, then the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), to write to Representative Jan Schakowsky. Schakowky had asked President Clinton to provide the World Health Organization with royalty free rights to health care products, for which the United States holds rights.
Schakowsky was pressing President Clinton to share its rights, under 35 USC 202(c)(4) — a federal statute that reserves certain rights in patents where the federal government provided funding for the invention.
Good Jeff’s new firm – Rabin Martin, part of extensive web of PR firms working with corporate clients on global health issues
What the 2001 Doha Declaration Changed
As the UN meets to discuss non-communicable diseases, one area of controversy is the effort by White House trade officials and the European Commissioner for Trade to block any mention in a Political Declaration of the November 14, 2001 WTO Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health.
This note explains why the Doha Declaration was important, and what USTR and DG-Trade are trying to do in the NCD resolution. I will start with a very quick history of the events that led to the 2001 WTO resolution.
Cables from Chile illustrate ongoing pressure by US trade officials on behalf of drug companies
Wikileaks has published several cables invovling Chile, a country that signed an FTA with the United States/ When the Chile/US FTA came into effect in 2004, it was the template for a series of subsequent Bush Administration FTA agreements that ramped up IPR protections for pharmacetuicals and copyrights, and it seemed aggressive at the time. Continue Reading
Vietnam cables: Data exclusivity should be automatic, comprehensive, retroactive and without procedures and formalities
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| Michael W. Michalak, former Ambassador to Vietnam, pressured Vietnam on behalf of PhRMA. |
Cables recently published by Wikileaks illustrate the degree to which the U.S. has been engaged in writing laws and training judges and government officials in Vietnam, on a wide range of pharmaceutical and intellectual property issues.
USTR releases new White Paper on Access to Medicine: includes almost no specifics in terms of negotiating positions
USTR has released its new White Paper on Access to Medicine. Here is the press release. A copy of the White Paper is available here:
USPTO award of $4 million in fy 2010 grants to groups advising developing countries on intellectual property issues
Last year the USPTO announced the award of $4 million in fy 2009 grants to advise developing couintries on intellectual property policies. The first set of grants were done under Arti Rai, then Administrator for External Affairs at USTPO. The grants went to a variety on pro-right owner groups, including those associated with Newt Gingrich and the Tea Party, and several supported by firms like Pfizer and Microsoft. Seven of the groups receiving the fy 2009 have in common the fact they received funding from either Microsoft or the Gates Foundation.