Wikileaks cables shows Obama Administration role in lobbying EU to approve Oracle acquisition of MySQL and other Sun assets

Two cables recently disclosed by Wikileaks illustrate the degree to which the Obama Administration was monitoring the EU review of the Oracle acquisition of Sun, and leaning on the European Union to permit Oracle to acquire MySQL and other “open source” assets controlled by Sun.

Both cables were signed by Ambassador Christopher W. Murray, who served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the United States Mission to the European Union, in Brussels, Belgium, from 2007 to 2010.

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240 Wikileaks cables on pharmaceutical data exclusivity

August 29, 2011
From KEI staff review of Wikileaks cables (/wikileaks)

The following are the cables identified in an August 29, 2011 search of the wikileaks cables, from http://cablesearch.net, using the search terms data exclusivity and pharmaceutical. This search identified 240 cables. Some 40 countries are mentioned in the cables. More than half of the cables involve 5 countries: Turkey (76), Taiwan (21), El Salvador (11), Honduras (11) and Tunisia (10).

Misc notes on the new Wikileaks cables

These are some notes on some of the new Wikileaks cables. (Much more at /wikileaks)

May 18, 2009. Pfizer meets asks US embassy to intervene in Philippines debate over drug prices. Embassy agrees to tell Philippines government that “imposition of price controls . . . would be unacceptable..”

http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/05/09MANILA1060.html

Subject: Health Department Patent Remedies to Cut Drug Prices

¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Philippine Department of Health is close to
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From Wikileaks, a US government cable on its involvement to shape Guatemala legislation on pharmaceutical IPR

August 28, 2011
From KEI staff review of Wikileaks cables (/wikileaks)

Among the many new cables released by Wikileaks is this gem, a detailed account of the U.S. government pressure on the Guatemala legislature to shape legislation on pharmaceutical test data IPR.

http://wikileaks.org/cable/2005/03/05GUATEMALA659.html

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 GUATEMALA 000659

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/11/2010
TAGS: ETRD KIPR PGOV PREL GT
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WIPO General Assembly: Expectations loom over decisions on treaties for actors, reading disabled persons and genetic resources

The WIPO General Assembly meets from Monday, 26 September 2011 to Wednesday, 5 October 2011 and will take place at the International Conference Center Geneva (CICG), 17 rue de Varembé, 1211, Geneva.

The tentative schedule for 49th session of the WIPO General Assembly can be found here: http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/govbody/en/a_49/a_49_1_prov_2.pdf.

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Medicines Patent Pool agreement with Gilead contains flexibilities including termination provisions and severability of licenses

On 12 July 2011, the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) and Gilead announced an agreement for Gilead to license patents for tenofovir (TDF), emtricitabine (FTC), elvitegravir (EVG), cobisistat (COBI) and a four drug combination of these drugs. KEI’s initial comments on the agreement are available here. Continue Reading

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Of WIPO, diplomatic conferences and international legally binding instruments

The 19th session of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore is meeting this week in Geneva (18-22 July 2011) to make a a decision on a possible international legal instrument (or instruments) to protect genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore. At the discussions of future work on 19 July 2011, the United States (Albert Tramposch, USPTO) asked the WIPO Legal Counsel (Edward Kwakwa) the following question.

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