WTO TRIPS Council (October 2020): South Africa issues clarion call urging support for TRIPS waiver proposal

On Friday, 16 October 2020, members of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) TRIPS Council held a three hour debate on the proposal (IP/C/W/669) first tabled by India and South Africa for a waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement… Continue Reading

China blocks Wikimedia Foundation’s application to become an observer at WIPO

On Wednesday, 23 September 2020, China blocked Wikimedia Foundation’s application to become an observer at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). At this week’s General Assembly, the WIPO was poised to accept the applications of thirteen organization including Wikimedia Foundation… Continue Reading

WHO member states poised to adopt weaker than needed COVID-19 resolution after tortuous negotiations

UPDATE: The World Health Organization has published the COVID-19 response resolution as a conference paper (A73/CONF./1) marked with the date of 18 May 2020. The sponsors of the draft resolution included: Albania, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia (Plurinational State… Continue Reading

EB146: WHO proposes changes to the modalities of non-State actors’ engagement in WHO’s governing bodies

Currently, the participation of non-State actors in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO) is regulated by the WHO’s Framework of Engagement with non-State actors (FENSA) which is “a privilege that the Executive Board may grant to nongovernmental organizations,… Continue Reading

NGO letter to WIPO negotiators, regarding proposal to sidetrack WIPO work on copyright limitations and exceptions

NGO-letter-on-proposed-LnE-agenda-change-SCCR39-10.21 Chair-proposal-NEXT STEPS 10-21-19 October 21, 2019 RE: Chair Proposal on Next Steps for Agenda Items 5 and 6 Dear Delegates at WIPO SCCR 39: We are shocked by the attached proposal of the Chair to change the title of… Continue Reading

KEI Statement on Adoption of the WHA72 Transparency Resolution

Today the World Health Assembly (WHA) approved A72/A/CONF./2 Rev.1 as a resolution, titled “Improving the transparency of markets for medicines, vaccines, and other health products.” Link to the resolution: http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA72/A72_ACONF2Rev1-en.pdf When the text was made available, I sent out a… Continue Reading

Comparison between April 29, May 7, and May 10 versions of WHA 72 resolution on transparency

On Monday, May 13th, Politico published the latest version (May 10, 2019) of the transparency resolution noting the “dizzying number of brackets” in the latest text. The original sponsors are: Italy, Greece, Malaysia, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey,… Continue Reading