Author: Thiru

On Tuesday, 25 February 2014, Ecuador delivered the following two interventions at the WTO TRIPS Council on agenda item 11 (Contribution of Intellectual Property to Facilitate the Transfer of Environmentally Rational Technology). The antecedent to this discussion item is a paper that Ecuador circulated to the TRIPS Council in February 2013 (IP/C/W/585) on the relationship between intellectual property and the transfer of environmentally sound technology. It’s core ask was a Bali Ministerial Declaration on IP and environmentally sound technologies:

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For non-trade specialists, a ‘non-violation complaint’ at the WTO effectively amounts to a complaint that a country has violated the spirit but not the letter of trade law. While countries can launch such disputes at the WTO for trade in goods and services, there is a moratorium on doing so over intellectual property rights. Continue Reading →

On Tuesday, 25 February 2014, India delivered the following intervention at the WTO TRIPS Council on agenda item 11 (Contribution of Intellectual Property to Facilitate the Transfer of Environmentally Rational Technology). Ecuador tabled this agenda item.

Contribution of IP to facilitate the transfer of Environmentally Sound Technology

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On Tuesday, 25 February 2014, India delivered the following intervention at the WTO TRIPS Council on agenda item 12 (IP and Innovation: University Technology Partnerships). The United States of America tabled this standalone agenda item on University Technology Partnerships in the context of IP and Innovation.

The following WTO airgram WTO/AIR/4240/REV.1 (14 February 2014) contains the agenda for the upcoming WTO Council for TRIPS meeting to be held in Geneva from Tuesday, 25 February 2014 to Wednesday, 26 February 2014.

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The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) submission (7 February 2014, Docket USTR-2013-0040) to USTR’s 2014 Special 301 Review contains a section on plain packaging policies in the context of the protection of trademarks. Continue Reading →

According to a press release issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on 6 December 2013, four candidatures for the post of Director General were received before the deadline for nominations (5 PM, 6 December 2013) expired.

The WIPO press release noted that,

The candidates are (in alphabetical order of names of candidates): Mr. Francis Gurry (Australia), Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama (Nigeria), Mr. Jüri Seilenthal (Estonia), and Mr. Alfredo Suescum (Panama).

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It is crunch time for WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC). The 26th session meets from 3-7 February 2014 in Geneva. This week’s session will focus on setting international norms for the protection of genetic resources against misappropriation and resolving two key areas of divergence: 1) the nature of the instrument and 2) the disclosure of origin requirement. Continue Reading →