The Fourth Session of WIPO’s Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) is taking place from 16 November 2009 to 20 November 2009.
Among the projects under consideration this week is is the project on Intellectual Property and the Public Domain based on recommendations 16 and 20 of the Development Agenda.
Recommendation 16 states:
I am often asked “who on earth would oppose a treaty to facilitate access to information and knowledge to people with reading disabilities?” Please read my selected quotes from the comments posted today on the Copyright office page here. But I would also like to highlight some really positive and supporting comments about the treaty. There are more of them than the negative ones but do they have the same weight?
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Today Benetech, a leading Silicon Valley technology nonprofit and operator of the Bookshare online library for people with print disabilities submitted comments to the US Copyright Office and the USPTO on the topic of access to copyrighted works for people with print disabilities. Here are the major points, the submission is attached at the end of this blog.
This is a note about the leaked ACTA documents, that have been reported now by several news organizations and bloggers.*
On September 30, 2009, the EU wrote a three page memo on the Internet chapter of ACTA. This is about a week after the USTR held a secret meeting with selected corporate lobbyists and lawyers to debate the ACTA Internet under terms of a tough non-disclosure agreement.
While the 6th Round of negotiations of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is taking place in Seoul, Republic of Korea from November 4-6, 2009, the 5th session of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) met from November 2-4, 2009.
KEI was asked to look at federal support for research and development on (Enbrel) etanercept.
A November 1, 2009 search of the NIH CRISP database reports 167 federal grants for research on etanercept.
The Wellcome Trust convened an “Opinion Formers Conference” on “Counterfeit Medicines: Perspectives and Action” on Monday 26 October 2009. Continue Reading
On November 4-6, 2009, the next round of negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Negotiations (ACTA) will take place in Seoul, Korea. The following is another strange chapter in the secrecy surrounding this negotiation.
Since ACTA was first announced, KEI has pressed the negotiating governments to provide more transparency, including recently, for example
In discussions about a possible WIPO Treaty for persons who are blind or have other reading disabilities, there have been suggestions by some that voluntary licensing by rights holders presents a sufficient solution to the problem. I studied several publications since 1985 to take a closer look at this viewpoint and find out what were the common perceptions.
Korean civil society has asked KEI to disseminate this request for solidarity and action in their efforts to reduce the price of Gleevec, a leukemia treatment pill. The current price is approximately 2,300 USD per month for an adult patient and the Korean government has been sued by Novartis for trying to reduce the price a 14%. Korean civil society is also requesting Novartis to introduce a higher form, 400 mg, in Korea.
REQUEST for Solidarity: