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.
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.
When Amazon released the Kindle 2 electronic book reader on February 9, 2009, the company announced that the device would read e-books aloud using text-to-speech (TTS) technology. Under pressure from the Authors Guild, Amazon has announced that it will give authors and publishers the ability to disable the text-to-speech function on any or all of their e-books available for the Kindle 2.
Continue Reading
Section IV of Part III of the TRIPS Agreement impose certain obligations to WTO Member States relating to border measures that may require custom authorities interventions in cases of importation of infringing goods. However, as the rest of Part III it also allows considerable flexibility to WTO Members States in implementing its obligations.