Asia Pacific Group asks WIPO to initiate exploratory discussions on the Report of the UN High Level Panel on Access to Medicines

On Monday, 11 December 2017, Indonesia, on behalf of the Asia Pacific Group, delivered the following opening statement at the 27th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP). The Asia Pacific Group issued a clarion… Continue Reading

WIPO publishes scoping study scoping study on the impact of the digital environment on copyright legislation

On Thursday, 26 October 2017, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published a scoping study (SCCR/35/4) on the impact of the digital environment on copyright legislation adopted between 2006 and 2016; the author of this study is Guilda Rostama, Ph.D. The mandate for this study emanates from a proposal of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States (GRULAC) first tabled at the 31st session of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) in December 2015. At SCCR33 in November 2016, WIPO Member States agreed to the following:

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WTO TRIPS Council (October 2017): South Africa highlights examples of compulsory licensing in Germany, Malaysia, and the US

On 20 October 2017, South Africa delivered the following statement on behalf of Brazil, China, India, and South Africa during the WTO TRIPS Council’s discussions on compulsory licensing. On 31 May 2017, these delegations (along with Fiji) submitted a proposal to the TRIPS Council on “Intellectual Property and the Public Interest” which would serve as an overarching theme for the Council to address issues including access to knowledge and access to medicines. Continue Reading

WIPO General Assembly 2017: Draft text on mandate of the future of the IGC (6 October 2017)

At 17:00 on Friday, 6 October 2017, the facilitators for WIPO’s informal discussions on Matters Concerning the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore circulated a draft decision on the future mandate of the committee. This text is a revised version of the document circulated at 13:30 on Thursday, 5 October 2017. The WIPO General Assembly is continuing its informals on the future of the IGC mandate between 15:00 to 16:30 on Monday, 9 October 2017 (according to the Daily Journal published by the WIPO Secretariat).

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