PhRMA giving more to democrats these days
According to the WSJ today PhRMA is spending $13.2 million in an “ad buy to prop up 28 Congressional candidates, many of them vulnerable and all but three of them Democrats.” The Journal points out
Wall Street Journal spotlights Microsoft’s government procurement strategy in Africa
According to a Wall Street Journal piece published on 28 October 2008, Microsoft has engaged in an assiduous campaign to outflank Linux by courting 13 African countries to use its software in government ministries and public schools.
La Union Mundial de Ciegos solicita a la OMPI que considere un tratado para mejorar el acceso al conocimiento a las personas con
El 28 de Octubre del 2008, Chris Friend de la Union Mundial de Ciegos envió una carta al Director General de la Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (OMPI) con una propuesta para un Tratado de la OMPI para los ciegos, las personas con deficiencias visuales y otras personas con discapacidad para la lectura.
La carta de la Union Mundial de Ciegos a la OMPI esta disponible aqui
World Blind Union asks WIPO to consider treaty for reading disabled persons
On October 28, 2008, Chris Friend of the World Blind Union sent a letter to WIPO DG Francis Gurry, with a proposal for a “WIPO treaty for Improved Access for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons.” The case for the treaty is explained in the WBU letter.
Additional information on this topic is available from the KEI web site here.
Dr. Yusuf Hamied at DNDi’s Geneva offices
[img_assist|nid=147|title=James Love and Dr. Yusuf K. Hameid of CIPLA, at DNDi Geneva offices, September 2008|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427] Continue Reading
Patents and Standards
On Monday, KEI hosted this event. Continue Reading
Association of American Publishers worried about Larry Lessig
The Association of American Publishers are apparently worried about Larry Lessig.
WIPO enriched by in-depth discussions of the public domain
The penultimate day of the WIPO development committee held in-depth discussions on recommendation 20 of the Development Agenda which states:
To promote norm-setting activities related to IP that support a robust public domain in WIPO’s Member States, including the possibility of preparing guidelines which could assist interested Member States in identifying subject matters that have fallen into the public domain within their respective jurisdictions.
PhRMA comments on ACTA: ISP Liability, Parallel Trade and Generic APIs
These are a few quick points about the PhRMA submission.
1. PhRMA asks that ACTA “Establish liability for Internet Service Providers and Other Operators that Facilitate Trade in Counterfeit Medical Products.”
This is potentially quite an important and controversial recommendation. PhRMA wants to make telecommunications companies liable if one of their customers sells counterfeit products.
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WIPO Development Agenda committee: Interface between competition policy and intellectual property
On Wednesday (9 July 11, 2008) the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) steered away from the detailed financial and human resources discussions that characterized the first two days of discussion to more substantive discussions on competition policy.
The morning session considered recommendation 7 of the WIPO Development Agenda which calls upon WIPO to