KEI intervention at the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP)
KEI Statement to the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP)
March 3, 2008
Journalists who wrote about US trade disputes before the 1999 Gore Zaps
In a blog posted today on the Huffington Post, I could have, should have, elaborated a bit on the few U.S. journalists who had written about the trade disputes involving patents on medicines, before AIDS activists began their zaps of Gore’s presidential campaign in June of 1999.
2002-8: WIPO discussions on access for blind, visually impaired and other reading disabled persons
During the current SCCR 17 discussions on copyright limitations and exceptions, some delegates are unfamiliar with the longstanding efforts to engage WIPO delegates in this issue. Here are some rough notes of *some* of the times when this issue has… Continue Reading
WIPO Secretariat surges ahead on hosting round table on “Economics of IP”
Without much fanfare save a press release bereft of critical detail, the WIPO Secretariat hosted an international round table on from 26-27 November 2007 which brought together 15 leading economists to discuss the “economics of intellectual property (IP)”.
According to the press release,
Require or Encourage? IGWG text on open access
Re: The WHO IGWG Text on Access to Publicly Funded Research Provision, from “Requirement” to “Encouragement”?
One of the outcomes of the Nov. 5-10, 2007 second session of the WHO Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG2) is a provision on access to government funded research.
Profile of open standards ramped up at Rio IGF
At the first Internet Governance Forum launched in Athens in the winter of 2006, the prevailing perception of open standards was that of an arcane, technical subject confined to obscure standard setting organizations staffed by computer scientists, engineers and technologists. It is perhaps testament to the efforts of the Dynamic Coalition of Open Standards (DCOS), created in Athens in 2006 that open standards has come to the fore of the 2nd Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro.
Google’s cell phone prize
There have been many new stories about Google’s new prize for cell phone applications (Such as this one).
This is how the program is described by Google:
Unlock the value, $10 million prize for silver mining technology
On September 20, the The New York Times reported on Barrick’s announcement it would offer “a $10 million prize on Wednesday to any scientist, researcher or inventor who can increase the amount of silver the company recovers from a mine in Argentina.” The rules for the prize are set out here: http://www.unlockthevalue.com/
Tom Giovanetti on the R&D Treaty, and political science
Tom Giovanetti kindly sent me a link to his latest NGO bashing. This one titled: “IP skeptic NGOs as Marxists.” This is his attempt to label the various public health groups as Marxists, and his brief attempt to understand or describe a February 2005 proposal for one possible approach R&D Treaty.
First, I have told Tom Giovanetti several times that while his hysterical red baiting is amusing at times, it is also sometimes offensive and boring.
Reasons why the IGWG should not place limits on the scope of diseases
In attempting to address problems of access to medicines in developing countries, it is not productive to utilize any typology to limit the scope of diseases that are to be part of the WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action’s focus for the next 7 years.