These are the notes from my intervention today at the UN’s High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in New York. The persons making statements from the floor were asked to keep their comments to two minutes, so the actual intervention was somewhat shorter. Jamie
KEI has received a copy of a May 16, 2011 letter from Karl De Gucht to Andris Piebalgs, which discusses (1) the EU-India FTA, and (2) Relations between IPR and development policies. Continue Reading
On Thursday, May 26, 2011, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced two bills in the United States Senate that would de-link R&D costs from drug prices. The bill names and numbers are as follows:
This is the statement that was delivered by Karin L. Ferriter (from USPTO and USTR), at a UNITAID side event on the Medicines Patent Pool, during a break of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents.
Statement on Medicines Patent Pool Side EventNGO Statement on WHO governance and the Management of Conflicts of Interest and the Future of Financing for WHO
NGO Statement on WHO governance and the Management of Conflicts of Interest and the Future of Financing for WHO.
May 18, 2011
We write to express our concerns about governance of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other public health bodies, as regards the management of conflicts of interest.
KEI comments to the WIPO patent committee discussion of patent quality
During today’s discussion at the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) on patent quality KEI make four points in its intervention.
1. WIPO should consider gathering information on the costs of litigation to challenge the validity of patents.
2. WIPO should consider creating a database to share information on the cases where litigation has resulted findings that patent claims as invalid.
Dr. Balasubramaniam
On April 19, 2011, Dr Kumariah Balasubramaniam died at his home in Sri Lanka. Dr. Balasubramaniam, known to many as Dr. Bala, was described by Professor Colvin Gooneratne as “one of the most knowledgeable, resolute, articulate, versatile, resilient and in many other ways exceptionally brilliant health activists [the world] has produced.” My tribute to Dr. Bala is in the Huffington Post. Prof. Continue Reading
The USTR Special 301 Report, some initial reactions
The USTR Special 301 Report was issued today. The full report is here, the USTR web page on the report is here, and a link to the USTR press release about the report is here. Continue Reading
Senator Wyden releases redacted version of October 29, 2010 CRS report on ACTA
On April 26, 2011, Senator Wyden released a redacted version of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on ACTA that has been the subject to an ongoing Freedom of Information ACT (FOIA) dispute with USTR.
(More context here, here and here).
This is a link to the report that USTR claimed they could not release because of restrictions on its use by Senator Wyden.
/wp-content/uploads/RedactedACTACRSMemotoSenWyden.pdf