According to this May 23 press release, the bill creating the H-Prize Act unanimously passed the House Committee on Science and Technology. The bill creates prizes for scientific breakthroughs in the use of hydrogen as an energy source for transportation.
On 23 May 2007, the 60th World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization’s highest governing body, adopted resolution WHA60.30 on Public health, innovation and intellectual property. This resolution bolstered the work program of WHO’s Intergovernmental Working Group on Public health, innovation and intellectual property (IGWG/PHI). This is the key operative section of the resolution, and the reactions by several key persons.
I have written a KEI Research note about Compulsory licensing of copyright under Article 44.2 of the TRIPS, in light of eBay, which is now on the web here.
According to this account:
Many of us have heard about the X-Prize, but what about the Mprize?
Legislation to create and fund an “H-Prize” has been re-introduced in the 110th Congress (S. 365, 3 co-sponsors, HR 632, 37 co-sponsors). The bills would “authorize the Secretary of Energy to establish monetary prizes for achievements in overcoming scientific and technical barriers associated with hydrogen energy.”
Prizes would be given in the following areas:
Rep Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) has introduced a bill that includes a section requiring the Secretary of Energy to enter into an arrangement with the National Academies of Sciences to evaluate the feasibility of prizes to promote the development of farms that are net producers of both food and energy.
110th CONGRESS,1st Session H. R. 80
This prize program is part of S. 280, a bill to address global warming. The high powered sponsors include Senators Lieberman, Carper, Clinton, Coleman, Collins, Durbin, Lincoln, McCain, Nelson, Obama and Snow.
This is a fairly significant prize program. It seems as though a single award can exceed $100 million, with the approval of the Secretary of Energy.
110th CONGRESS, 1st Session, S. 280
In April 2007, Senators Bingaman (D-NM), Domenici (R-MM), Dorgan (D-SD), Lugar (R-IN), Akaka (D-HI), Murkowski (R-AK) and Craig (R-ID) introduced legislation dealing with energy efficiency. One section of the bill requires the United States Treasury to create a Bright Light Tomorrow permanent fund, without a fiscal year limitation, to finance prizes for energy efficient lamps. There are three specific prizes.