On 4 June 2010, Dr. Margaret Chan (Director General, World Health Organization) announced Dr. Anne Marie Worning as ‘acting Director, Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (PHI)’. According to the WHO website,
Dr Anne Marie Worning, a Danish national, is the Executive Director of the Director-General’s Office since April 2009.
The announcement this week that Al and Tipper Gore have separated brought back a number of memories. I first worked with Al Gore’s office in 1990, when I was an employee of the Center for the Study of Responsive Law, working with the American Library Association (ALA) and other library groups to overturn a Reagan era policy to privatize the distribution of government databases. Among other things, I had worked with Representative Charlie Rose to introduce a bill in the House of Representatives to create an online distribution system at the Government Printing Office (GPO). Continue Reading
Open-ended consultations on copyright limitations and exceptions for persons with print disabilities
Geneva, May 27, 2010
Mr. Chairman,
Yesterday, during the first round of the consultations, Brazil recalled the reasons why there is an urgent need for a treaty on Improved Access for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons. As civil society representatives were not present yesterday, I will recall some of the main points Brazil holds dear in these discussions.
I was recently asked the following question:
Jamie
What is your view on the treatment of prize funds? By all standards it is treated as a radical off the wall proposal when in fact it is market based. Why is there so much resistance?
My response was as follows:
In a letter dated 4 May 2010, the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy has responded to questions and concerns of the European Parliament regarding the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Continue Reading
The Chapter FIVE (Institutional Arrangements) of ACTA is short. In less than 4 pages (pp 33-36) the negotiators “hereby establish” and “Oversight Steering Committee” (the OSC). Of course all of this chapter can be revisited later (see footnote 73) but let’s examine what is proposed now.
KEI has issued a new research note, Comments on ACTA Provisions on Injunctions and Damages, KEI Research Note 2010:1, dated April 6, 2010.
In looking at how enforcement norms are being changed in ACTA, it is helpful to review the enforcement chapter of NAFTA.
KEI has access to yet undisclosed sections of the negotiating ACTA text. The text is organized in 6 chapters. The longest is Chapter 2 on “legal framework for enforcement of intellectual property rights.” The second longest is Chapter 5, on “Institutional Arrangements.” In ten pages of text, the ACTA negotiators have set out a plan to create a new institution to administer, implement and modify ACTA. Continue Reading
Below are asks from the 2010 PhRMA submission to the USTR Special 301 list on the topic of drug pricing and reimbursement decisions, and described as ‘Market Access Barriers.’ In its assertions, PhRMA attack countries for government price negotiations, making use of reference pricing, the insufficient involvement of pharmaceutical companies in setting government pricing policies and the composition of drug formularies, among other things.
CHINA