Month: September 2012

The fiftieth Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is meeting on Geneva from 1 October 2012 to 9 October 2012. Agenda item 26 is the “Report on the Work of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR)” which according to the provisional agenda, is scheduled for discussion on Thursday, 4 October 2012. Continue Reading →

Today Krista and I attended a “stakeholder consultation stakeholder consultation regarding the implementation of the World Health Organization’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework.” The meeting was chaired by Jonathan Margolis, the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science, Space and Health in the Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

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KEI has recently learned that 6 of 9 countries ignored a UN Special Rapporteur request to respond to the March 22, 2011 complaint regarding the TPP. We are also disappointed in the comments from the three that did respond. The UN process for dealing with such complaints is somewhat bureaucratic and secretive. Among the three countries that did respond, Australia, Chile and New Zealand, all defended the secrecy of the TPP negotiating text and asserted that the TPP would not violate the right to health. Continue Reading →

In Washington, DC there is a large and growing influence industry. One element of this industry is the thousands of people who register as lobbyists with the Congress. Because of the way disclosure rules are written, this is only a fraction of the persons who are actually employed to influence the Congress or the Executive Branch. Continue Reading →

In August, KEI provided comments to USTR regarding the entry of Mexico and Canada into the TPP negotiations. (https://www.keionline.org/node/1542). Today is the public hearing. Right now there are about 35 people in the audience, and a panel of 9 persons from various agencies hearing the testimonies. There are only 10 witnesses in today’s hearing, and only three, KEI, PhRMA and IIPA, are speaking on IPR issues.

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In April 2012, the WHO released the Report of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination (CEWG). One of its primary recommendations called upon member states to began formal negotiations on a binding global convention on R&D. Continue Reading →

Yesterday I wrote about the USPTO blocking KEI and many other NGOs, blogs and news organizations from their public wifi service. The USPTO says this practice has been discontinued, as of last evening (more here: /node/1548) but I found the issue interesting enough to follow up a bit. What I have found is more troubling than the initial case described yesterday.

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Update: At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block “political activist” sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.

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On 12 March 2012 the Controller General of Patents,Designs & Trademarks of India issued an order granting a compulsory license under Section 84 of the Patents Act (1970) to Natco in patent number 215758 granted to Bayer covering the anti-drug sorafenib toslyate. KEI filed an affidavit in this compulsory licensing dispute involving Natco and Bayer. Following the issuance of a compulsory license, Bayer requested the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) to issue a stay on the compulsory license.

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Attached is a PDF of KEI’s 31 August 2012 written submission to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ national consultation on financing and coordination of research and development for the health needs of developing countries. Continue Reading →