Search Results for: ustr

On Wednesday, December 14, 2011 the Subcommittee on Trade of the Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). Oral testimony was accepted only from invited witnesses. These witnesses included: Ambassador Demetrios Marantis (Deputy U.S. Trade Representative), Devry S. Boughner (Director, Intenrational Business Relations on behalf of Cargill Inc. and U.S. Business Coalition for TPP), Angela Marshall Hofmann (Vice President for Global Integrated Sourcing on Trade, Wal-Mart Stores), and Michael Wessel (President of The Wessel Group).

Continue Reading →

On Wednesday, 7 December 2011, the United States of America tabled a proposal on patents and health which was distributed at 6 PM by the WIPO Secretariat after much of the substantive dicussions

Standing Committee on the Law of Patents

Seventeenth Session
Geneva, December 5 to 9, 2011

PATENTS AND HEALTH: PROPOSAL BY THE DELEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Document prepared by the Secretariat

Continue Reading →

On December 1, 2011, Senator Sanders (I-VT) sent a letter to United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Kirk, objecting to USTR’s position with regard to access to medicines in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and the apparent retreat from the May 10th Agreement. Senator Sanders also objects to the secrecy of the negotiations and calls for the public release of the TPPA negotiating texts. Continue Reading →

Lucia Helena Salgado, from Coordinator of Regulatory and Market Studies, institute of Research on Applied Economics (IPEA) is presenting her study on Anti-Competitive Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (Sham Litigation) at the 7th session of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement.

The report can be found here:

http://wipo.int/export/sites/www/meetings/en/2011/wipo_ip_ge_11/docs/study.pdf

Continue Reading →

According to OpenSecrets.Org, the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector has reported $115,571,832 in lobbying for 2011, a number that will grow considerably when all quarterly reports are filed. The top lobbying outlays were reported by PhRMA, the trade association, followed by Pfizer, Amgen, Merck, Lilly, Novartis, Bayer and GSK. The top generic company was Teva, which ranked 12th overall. As reported by OpenSecrets, some firms are listed more than once, for lobbying outlays by different subsidiaries. Continue Reading →

Next week, the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR 23) will meet beginning on 21 November and continue through 2 December 2011. One issue that will be discussed is a possible treaty for copyright limitations and exceptions for persons who are visually impaired or have other disabilities. A treaty is necessary to provide minimum standards for limitations and exceptions to permit the creation of accessible format works and also to facilitate cross-border sharing of these works. Continue Reading →

On November 13, 2011, the Los Angeles Times published a story by David Willman on a no-bid contract with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to supply the government with a drug for smallpox. The LA Times story begins with this:

Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.

Continue Reading →

On October 26, 2011, a bipartisan group of members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced HR 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, known as SOPA. While much of the bill deals with “online” piracy,” some sections of the bill appear to have nothing to do with the Internet. The bill also creates a new bureaucracy to deal with very broadly defined trade related intellectual property rights issues, including those identified in the annual USTR Special 301 report.

Continue Reading →

On 25 October 2011, the WTO TRIPS Council held its annual review of the Paragraph 6 System under Item G. Under the sub-heading of alternatives to the Paragraph 6 system, Ecuador asked the European Union (EU) about the issuance of three compulsory licenses in Italy between 2005 to 2007. In its intervention, Ecuador asked the EU for more detail regarding the Italian Competition Authority’s issuance of compulsory licenses for export to Spain and other EU members in cases involving Glaxo and Merck including, but not limited to, administrative procedures, decision-making processes, and rationale. Continue Reading →

The ninth round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) took place in Lima, Peru from 19-28 October 2011. Stakeholders were given the opportunity to present at the stakeholder platform on 23 October, attend the stakeholder briefing on 25 October and the reception on 25 October.

Intellectual Property

Continue Reading →