From November 21 to 23, the Government of India and the World Health Organization are hosting the “1st World Conference on Access to Medical Products and International Laws for Trade and Health, in the Context of the 2030 Agenda for… Continue Reading
November 15, 2017. . Copyright: WIPO. Photo: Emmanuel Berrod. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO License. After discussing the Broadcasters, cablecasters and webcasters treaty also called by some the “youtube” Treaty, the Committtee moved on… Continue Reading
(More on government funded inventions here. Other KEI comments on NIH licenses are found here.) Background: The National Institutes of Health has proposed giving an exclusive license for multiple Zika vaccine candidates to PaxVax, a company with close ties to the federal… Continue Reading
Day 1 at WIPO STANDING COMMITTEE ON COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS Since 1998, the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR),has engaged in negotiations to create new norms for the protection of broadcasters, cablecasters and now –again– webcasters… Continue Reading
Statement by James Love, KEI Director, on GOP proposal to eliminate the Orphan Drug Tax Credit.
The GOP proposal to eliminate the Orphan Drug Tax Credit may create a new opportunity to reform the incentives for rare diseases, even if the tax bill fails or the tax credit survives. The GOP tax bill shows there is weaker support for the existing regime than many thought.
On Thursday, 26 October 2017, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published a scoping study (SCCR/35/4) on the impact of the digital environment on copyright legislation adopted between 2006 and 2016; the author of this study is Guilda Rostama, Ph.D. The mandate for this study emanates from a proposal of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States (GRULAC) first tabled at the 31st session of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) in December 2015. At SCCR33 in November 2016, WIPO Member States agreed to the following:
KEI has submitted an amicus brief in support of Respondents in the case of Oil States Energy Services, LLC, v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC, currently before the Supreme Court. The brief is attached here.
On Friday, 20 October 2017, India delivered the following intervention on compulsory licensing. India briefly recounted the experiences of Brazil, South Africa, and Thailand in using compulsory licensing to secure access to ARVs.
On Friday, 20 October 2017, Brazil delivered the following statement during TRIPS Council discussions on compulsory licensing. Brazil zeroed in a recent compulsory licensing case in Germany involving raltagravir, an antiretroviral.
On 20 October 2017, South Africa delivered the following statement on behalf of Brazil, China, India, and South Africa during the WTO TRIPS Council’s discussions on compulsory licensing. On 31 May 2017, these delegations (along with Fiji) submitted a proposal to the TRIPS Council on “Intellectual Property and the Public Interest” which would serve as an overarching theme for the Council to address issues including access to knowledge and access to medicines. Continue Reading