Every year at the end of September, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) holds a General Assembly (GA). The GA hears reports from all WIPO committees, approves budgets and top staff appointments, and sets the agenda for the next year. This year’s GA started today, with a large number of patent and copyright office heads, trade negotiators and NGOs in attendance.
March 28, 2001
Secretary Tommy Thompson
Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201
Dear Mr. Thompson:
This note concerns two areas of policy concerning humanitarian uses of patents. (1), a recommended exception to patent rights for humanitarian uses, and (2), the licensing of patents for humanitarian uses. Both examples focus on access to essential medical technologies.… Continue Reading
Date: September 10, 2009
On September 10, 2009 KEI hosted a brownbag lunch to discuss the scope of patentable subject matter, focusing specifically on the implications for life-science patents of the Supreme Court’s forthcoming review of the Bilski Federal Circuit opinion. This is the first time since 1981 that the US Supreme Court will address the limits of patentable subject matter.
The key U.S. statue on this issue is Section 101 of the patent law:
35 USC 101. Inventions patentable
On July 6, 2009, a report of the the U.S.-Japan Regulatory Reform and Competition Policy Initiative was presented to President Obama and Prime Minister Aso of Japan. The report provides an insight into the degree that the U.S. government tries to influence prices for medicines and medical devices in foreign markets. Here, as in other foreign markets, the U.S. government seeks to raise prices, and to give industry an even greater role in setting the prices for their products.
According to a report by Duff Wilson in the Sunday New York Times, Much of PhRMA’s $150 million in advertising will be spent pushing Senator Baucus’s version of the health “reform” legislation.
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
(See also the KEI web page on the WIPO broadcast treaty).
19 June 2007
For older documents, see CPTech webpage on WIPO Broadcasting Treaty
For commentary, including breaking developments, see KEI blogs on the treaty.
The following is the text that was prepared in 2005 as a
possible basis for a treaty on Access to Knowledge. The text
was prepared in response to an August 2004 proposal by Argentina
and Brazil for a WIPO Development Agenda, that included in its
original proposal, a possible treaty on access to knowledge. The
process that created this specific draft text included three
elements.