2nd meeting of WHO Consultative Working Group on R&D Financing (CEWG): Summary of proceeedings by Chair (John Arne Røttingen)

On 8 July 2011, the WHO Consultative Expert Working Group on R&D Financing and Coordination (CEWG) held an open session to brief the public on their preliminary assessments and recommendations.

To access the slide presentation presented by the Chair (John Arne Røttingen, Norway) and Vice-Chair (Claudia Inês Chamas, Brazil), please click on the following link: http://www.who.int/phi/news/Open_Session_July_v3.pdf

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KEI/South Centre panel on Doha+10: The State of Implementation, 14 November 2011

Doha +10

On 14 November 2001, at its Ministerial in Doha, Qatar, the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and public health. Exactly 10 years to the date, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and the South Centre have are co-hosting a side event at WIPO to discuss the following questions:

How have WTO members implemented paragraphs 4, 6 and 7 of the Doha Declaration? What changes are needed to achieve access to medicine for all?
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WIPO patent committee solicits comments on proposals on quality of patents (including opposition systems) and patents and health

On 28 June 2011, Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), sent out Circular note 7998 requesting Member States and Observers to the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) to submit comments on the the proposal by Canada and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on Quality of Patents, including Opposition Systems and the proposal by South Africa on behalf of the African Group and the Development Group on Continue Reading

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USTR New Exclusive Right for Copyright Holders: Importation Provision in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)

At the recently completed Vietnam round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), once again, no official text of negotiation was released. Therefore, we still need to speculate about its status, relying in part on a three-month-ago leaked version of the intellectual property chapter proposed by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

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EU Challenge for ACTA: Transferring Personal Data to Unsafe Countries

The European Union has a long tradition of protecting personal information. Since the 70’s, some European countries have adopted domestic law that regulates the processing of personal data. Starting in the 90’s, the European Union has approved several directives that provide a communitarian legal framework for processing personal data. Simultaneously, several countries in Europe have modified their constitutions in order to include provisions that guarantee the right to privacy and the right to protection of personal data. Continue Reading

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Notes from the Seventh Round of TPPA Negotiations in Vietnam

Last week I attended the seventh round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) that took place in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I was able to meet negotiators from all nine negotiating parties and was able to discuss our concerns regarding the proposed U.S. IP chapter for the TPPA, including, in particular, access to medicines and the right to health. I was also able to distribute the joint civil society comments previously submitted to the U.S. Continue Reading

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