China describes TRIPS Council proposal on ACTA and other plurilateral enforcement agreements.
At a June 28, 2010 Geneva workshop on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Dr. Zhao Hong, from the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the World Trade Organization, distributed a proposal that was prepared for the June 8-9, 2010 meeting of the WTO TRIPS Council:
Decisions to be takenDecision of the TRIPS Council on the Relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and Intellectual Property Provisions of bilateral, plurilteral Trade Agreeements
Members,
Comparison of the four proposals on disabilities at WIPO SCCR
The attached table, prepared as a collaboration between KEI and the WBU, provides a comparison of the four proposals being discussed this week at the WIPO SCCR 20, as regards to the provisions about access to copyrighted works for persons with disabilities. The African Group proposal includes additional issues, but in this table, we only examine those that relate specifically to persons with disabilities. Continue Reading
Remembering Al and Tipper Gore
The announcement this week that Al and Tipper Gore have separated brought back a number of memories. I first worked with Al Gore’s office in 1990, when I was an employee of the Center for the Study of Responsive Law, working with the American Library Association (ALA) and other library groups to overturn a Reagan era policy to privatize the distribution of government databases. Among other things, I had worked with Representative Charlie Rose to introduce a bill in the House of Representatives to create an online distribution system at the Government Printing Office (GPO). Continue Reading
Costs and Benefits of the US Proposal to WIPO SCCR on Copyright Exceptions for Disabilities
On May 27, 2010, the US government presented to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), a proposal for a “Consensus Instrument” for persons with disabilities related to reading printed publications.
WIPO SCCR open ended consultation on the treaty for the blind
I plan to write up a more detailed analysis of the WIPO open ended consultation on the treaty for persons who are blind or have other disabilities. I did want to make a few quick notes, however.
1 Why is there resistance to prize funds?
I was recently asked the following question:
Jamie
What is your view on the treatment of prize funds? By all standards it is treated as a radical off the wall proposal when in fact it is market based. Why is there so much resistance?My response was as follows:
KEI Statement on WHA 63 Establishment of Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Finance and Coordination
The World Health Assembly (WHA) has just adopted a new resolution on the “Establishment of a Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Finance and Coordination.” The resolution is just over 4 pages. It represents a dramatic response to the earlier WHO Expert Working Group (EWG), by
- calling for a more member state driven role in establishing the membership of the group,
- focusing extensively by the need to deepen the analysis,
16 Mary Moran, Inc.
Dr. Mary Moran was a member of the WHO Expert Working Group on R&D financing. According to one WHO official, she was also hired by the World Health Organization to write key sections of the report, managed the selection criteria, ended up giving her own proposal the highest rating, and was asked by the WHO to address the May 13th consultations with WHO member states. Yesterday Dr. Moran approached me in part to ask that she not be identified as an employee of the George Institute. Continue Reading
PDP+ presented at WHA to skeptical audience
Last evening the Global Health Council (GHC) and the Global Health Forum (GHF) co-hosted an event on funding R&D for neglected diseases. The event was one of several hosted by the GHC at the posh Intercontinental Hotel.
A “proposal” for PDP funding was presented by Novartis, IAVI and Mary Moran. Called PDP+, it was an attempt to “merge” three different proposals that were endorsed by the WHO Expert Working Group (EWG).
KEI Statement on USTR 301 list
USTR has released its 2010 Special 301 list. Closely following the IIPI and the PhRMA asks, the Special 301 Priority Watch List countries are: Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, and Venezuela. Among high income countries, Finland, Norway and Spain made the Watch list this year. Sweden was off.