Author: Thiru

The WHO IGWG drafting group meeting in Salle XXIII of the Palais des Nations during this week’s World Health Assembly is charged with hammering out a consensus global strategy that would inter alia, secure

an enhanced and sustainable basis for needs-driven, essential health research and development relevant to diseases that disproportinately affect developing countries, proposing clear objectives and priorities for research and development, and estimating funding needs in in this area.

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During the IGWG, BIO, the trade association, a group not yet in official relations with the WHO, was given the right to place four persons inside the closed drafting sessions. One of them was Jon Santamauro, who until recently was a US trade official on intellectual property issues.

“Mr. Santamauro has more than 15 years of experience handling intellectual property issues for the U.S. Government.”

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On April 15, 2008, WIPO released its long awaited Report on the International Patent System. Continue Reading →

This text was handed at around 11 AM on Wednesday morning. Apologies for any typos. This was typed by 3 different people from the hard copy distributed by the International Bureau.

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STANDING COMMITTEE ON COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS

Sixteenth Session, March 10 to 12, 2008-03-12

DRAFT CONCLUSIONS

Protection of audiovisual performances

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It is 10:25 AM here in Geneva and the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) has yet to begin. The buzz in the hallways indicates that Finland, Italy, Senegal and Canada are vying for leadership of this Committee which will have important ramifications for WIPO’s work on limitations and exceptions, the public domain, competition and access to knowledge. From our perspective, we hope that the this Committee will augur in the fresh winds of change that will change the direction of WIPO’s work on copyright and related rights towards a positive agenda.

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WIPO Member States attending the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property have been invited to a tequila tasting event on 6 March 2008 at the Hotel de Paix coinciding with the candidacy of the Mexican candidate (Jorge Amigo) to the position of Director General of WIPO. The text of the invitation is reproduced below.

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The newly created WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) is meeting this week in Geneva from 3 March – 7 March 2008. The chair of the CDIP is Ambassador Trevor Clarke of Barbados. Today the discussion has focused mainly on the rules of procedure and modalities governing this Committee. Unfortunately, finding the 45 Development Agenda recommendations adopted at the WIPO General Assembly in September/October 2007 on the WIPO website is not easy. Continue Reading →

KEI Statement to the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP)

March 3, 2008

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