Month: March 2015

Twenty groups, including KEI, have written Congress, asking the Congress to provide public access to draft trade agreement texts and U.S. proposals throughout negotiations, and to specific that only agreements developed through such processes should obtain any expedited congressional consideration.

Among other things, the groups said:

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On Wednesday, 11 March 2015, Oliver Hall-Allen, First Counsellor, Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations Office in Geneva delivered the following statement in response to the presentation of the Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights (Farida Shaheed) on her Report on Copyright policy and the right to science and culture (A/HRC/28/57).

Oliver Hall-Allen (blue tie, white shirt), First Counsellor, Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations Office in Geneva

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On Wednesday, 11 March 2015, Ambassador Keith Harper, U.S. Representative to the Human Rights Council, delivered the following statement to the 28th Session of the Human Rights Council on the topic of cultural rights. Continue Reading →

On Wednesday, 11 March 2015, Farida Shaheed, the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights presented her seminal report on Copyright policy and the right to science and culture (A/HRC/28/57) at the 28th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Highlights from the report’s recommendations include the following:

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As part of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) technical assistance and capacity building program, on Thursday, 26 February 2015, the WTO Secretariat convened a Symposium on the TRIPS Agreement for TRIPS Council Members and Observers which brought together negotiators from the 1986–94 Uruguay Round to discuss how the Round introduced intellectual property norms into the architecture of the multilateral trading system. In addition, other experts were brought in to discuss what has happened since the introduction of the TRIPS Agreement, and what augurs for the future.

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St Jude holds 24 patents with influenza in the specification, that also disclose US government rights. Some of these were discussed here: /node/2188

PAT. NO. Title
1 8,574,592 Modified influenza virus for monitoring and improving vaccine efficiency
2 8,551,481 Anti-cancer vaccine composition comprising an anti-CD223 antibody and kit comprising an anti-cancer vaccine and an anti-CD223 antibody
3 8,309,099 DNA transfection system for the generation of negative strand RNA virus
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Our 2009 FOIA request, and 42 pages of CDC emails debating what to give us.

/misc-docs/FOIA/14-01041-cdc-foia-frequest-2009.pdf

The February 17, 2015 cover letter from CDC.
/wp-content/uploads/CDC_17feb2015_FOIA_CoverLetter.pdf

The 184 page CDC foia response, which we received in February 2015. Note that we were particularly interested in the patent issues related to reverse genetics.

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At the February 24, 2015 USTR hearing on Special 301, KEI asked to provide supplemental comments on R&D for the record, and KEI was separately asked by USTR to provide comments on online pharmacies, and by DHHS to comment on the relationship between emergencies and compulsory licensing. (The KEI page on Special 301 is here: /ustr/special301).

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