The following intervention was delivered today by H.E. Alfredo Suescum, Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Panama to the WTO on behalf of of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries (GRULAC). With respect to a disabilities treaty, GRULAC noted:
The 49th WIPO General Assembly began today, in a packed hall of the CICG convention center. The agenda and other documents for the meeting is available here. The Director General, Francis Gurry, began his talk focusing on financial challenges, and, among other things, several references to the work of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). Gurry talked about progress on the AV treaty, and progress on an “instrument” for persons with disabilities. He talked about the new SCCR work program on the broadcast treaty. He did not mention the WIPO work on libraries, education or other copyright limitations and exceptions issues.
The meeting is webcast. Countries have been given 5 minutes for opening statements.
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In 2000, President Clinton asked Donna Shalala, then the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), to write to Representative Jan Schakowsky. Schakowky had asked President Clinton to provide the World Health Organization with royalty free rights to health care products, for which the United States holds rights.
Schakowsky was pressing President Clinton to share its rights, under 35 USC 202(c)(4) — a federal statute that reserves certain rights in patents where the federal government provided funding for the invention.
The NCD Alliance is a formal alliance of the International Diabetes Federation, The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Union for International Cancer Control and the World Heart Federation established on 19 May 2009 “representing the four main NCDs outlined in the World Health Organization’s 2008-2013 Action Plan for NCDs – cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory disease”. Continue Reading
Krista Cox wrote these notes on September 13, 2011, reporting on the eighth round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). Continue Reading
As the UN meets to discuss non-communicable diseases, one area of controversy is the effort by White House trade officials and the European Commissioner for Trade to block any mention in a Political Declaration of the November 14, 2001 WTO Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health.
This note explains why the Doha Declaration was important, and what USTR and DG-Trade are trying to do in the NCD resolution. I will start with a very quick history of the events that led to the 2001 WTO resolution.
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| Michael W. Michalak, former Ambassador to Vietnam, pressured Vietnam on behalf of PhRMA. |
Cables recently published by Wikileaks illustrate the degree to which the U.S. has been engaged in writing laws and training judges and government officials in Vietnam, on a wide range of pharmaceutical and intellectual property issues.
USTR has released its new White Paper on Access to Medicine. Here is the press release. A copy of the White Paper is available here:
Last year the USPTO announced the award of $4 million in fy 2009 grants to advise developing couintries on intellectual property policies. The first set of grants were done under Arti Rai, then Administrator for External Affairs at USTPO. The grants went to a variety on pro-right owner groups, including those associated with Newt Gingrich and the Tea Party, and several supported by firms like Pfizer and Microsoft. Seven of the groups receiving the fy 2009 have in common the fact they received funding from either Microsoft or the Gates Foundation.