Knowledge Ecology International

On February 16, 2012, the USPTO held a public hearing on genetic diagnostic testing, pursuant to a Congressional mandate that was part of the America Invents Act. This mandate directed the USPTO to evaluate several questions related to genetic diagnostic testing, particularly with regard to second opinion or confirmatory genetic testing. USPTO will deliver its final report to Congress in June. Notes from the public hearing are available in a separate blog post.

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In a meeting with USTR on February 15, 2012, KEI, MSF, Oxfam and Public Citizen pressed USTR to release the negotiating text for the intellectual property rights chapter in the TPPA trade agreement negotiation. USTR said the negotiation had “unprecedented” transparency, but maintained the text needed to be secret from the general public. USTR also claimed than no one on its many advisory boards, who are cleared to see the negotiating text, were lobbyists.

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This is an essay about strategic ignorance, as regards evidence relevant to policies that cost consumers and taxpayers billions of dollars.

The United States government grants 20 year patents on pharmaceutical drugs, and it also provides a growing number of other non-patent incentives and subsidies to stimulate R&D investments in new medicines. Are these incentives and subsidies necessary or cost effective? How would anyone know?

Here are some of the incentives we offer:

• Up to five year extensions of patents on pharmaceutical drugs.

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On Wednesday February 22, 2012, from 12:30pm to 2:30pm, KEI will host a roundtable discussion on international copyright negotiations. The location of the meeting will be 1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009. There will be an opportunity to participate by telephone, via toll free calls in many countries. (To register or for details on call-in, email manon.ress@keionline.org. If you want to try to join by skype, we will do our best.)

The topics to be discussed are the following International copyright negotiations:

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Sangeeta Shashikant from TWN recently collected and published several NGO statements on the Africa IP Summit, in the TWO Info Service on Intellectual Property Issues (Feb12/03), which included a link also to a letter to WIPO signed by more than 100 NGOs. Continue Reading →

KEI and Essential Inventions have both filed requests to testify at the public hearing on the 2012 Special 301 Report. The comments are attached here:

KEI 2012 Comments on Special 301, in PDF or ODT

Essential Inventions 2012 Comments on Special 301, in PDF

The KEI submission follows:

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Health GAP, KEI, Oxfam, Public Citizen, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines and Professor Susan Sell have written Cameron Forbes Kerry, the General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Commerce, asking Kerry to “review work on the Africa Intellectual Property Forum, currently scheduled for April 3-5, 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa, to see if the sponsorship of the event violates Executive Order 13155, on Access to HIV/AIDS Pharmaceuticals and Medical Technologies.” Executive Order 13155 was issued by President Clinton on May 10, 2000 after an extensive review of U.S. Continue Reading →

On February 8, 2012, seven public health organisations submitted a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the other thirty-nine members of this committee opposing H.R. 3699, the “Research Works Act.” This bill, originally introduced on December 16, 2011 by Rep. Issa and Rep. Maloney (D-NY) would prohibit federal agencies from conditioning its federal grants on recipients making its published research results available to the public. Continue Reading →

The United States Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) is the lead agency of a concerted effort involving the governments of France, Japan, South Africa and the United States, alongside the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI), and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) to organize the inaugural “Africa Intellectual Property Forum: Intellectual Property, Regional Integration and Economic Gr Continue Reading →