General Statement of India to the WIPO General Assembly 2012 (raises concerns on public health and green technology)

The following statement was delivered by Shri Saurabh Chandra, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, New Delhi on Monday, 1 October 2012 at the WIPO General Assembly.

In her statement, India stressed that intellectual property norms must not create “monopoly situations which may hinder competition and access to technology”.

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More on the 3-step test in global copyright negotiations

This is an elaboration on the 3-step test in multilateral agreements. The 1996 WCT Copyright treaty has bad language on the 3-step test, but the WCT is not now part of the TRIPS agreement, and is only subject to dispute resolution via trade agreements outside of the WTO, like the TPPA.

If the WCT is referenced under the general provisions to the TPPA, you also get the 3-step test in the TPPA, subject, however, to the agreed upon statement regarding Article 10, which is helpful.

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Implementation of the WHO Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework

Today Krista and I attended a “stakeholder consultation stakeholder consultation regarding the implementation of the World Health Organization’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework.” The meeting was chaired by Jonathan Margolis, the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science, Space and Health in the Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

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More on the Blue Coat web filters

Yesterday I wrote about the USPTO blocking KEI and many other NGOs, blogs and news organizations from their public wifi service. The USPTO says this practice has been discontinued, as of last evening (more here: /node/1548) but I found the issue interesting enough to follow up a bit. What I have found is more troubling than the initial case described yesterday.

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USPTO blocks web access to “Political/Activist Groups” including KEI, ACLU, EFF, Public Citizen, Redstate, DailyKos

Update: At 5 pm the USPTO called and said that the public access wifi network was using a filter, provided by a contractor, to block “political activist” sites. This filter was not used by the network providing Internet access for the USPTO staff. After our meeting, the USPTO reviewed its policies, and has removed the filter. USPTO says the filter was implemented by a contractor, and no one we talked to at USPTO was aware of who was being blocked. In any event, the filter has been removed.

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Intellectual Property Appellate Board (Chennai) dismisses Bayer’s request for a stay on compulsory license for sorafenib

On 12 March 2012 the Controller General of Patents,Designs & Trademarks of India issued an order granting a compulsory license under Section 84 of the Patents Act (1970) to Natco in patent number 215758 granted to Bayer covering the anti-drug sorafenib toslyate. KEI filed an affidavit in this compulsory licensing dispute involving Natco and Bayer. Following the issuance of a compulsory license, Bayer requested the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) to issue a stay on the compulsory license.

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