On Thursday, 16 August 2012, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its opinion in the case Association for Molecular Pathology v. US Patent and Trademark Office, again rejecting the plaintiffs’ contentions that isolated DNA is not eligible for patent protection. This case surrounds the patent eligibility of isolated DNA, particularly the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes known to be associated with an individual’s susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancer.
As Geneva awakes from its summer slumber post-Jeûne genevois (6 September 2012), the following conferences and negotiations are expected to shape the knowledge governance landscape in the second semester of 2012 at WHO, WIPO and WTO.
World Health Organization
Here are upcoming meetings of the WHO in 2012 of relevance to public heath, innovation and access.
When politicians and trade officials tell you they want to impose a restrictive 3-step test to narrow the copyright limitations and exceptions permitted under the Berne Convention, take a minute to review what the Berne exceptions cover, and ask yourself, why would anyone want to further limit these exceptions?
[The related rights in the Rome Convention, the rights in the WCT, WPPT and Beijing treaties, and the flexabilities in the WTO TRIPS Agreement require a separate discussion].
In 2011, Russia made a very important proposal to the G20 regarding the need for new global norms on copyright. Just a few parts of the message illustrate its ambition.
to expand the opportunities of right holders to manage and exercise the rights to the results of intellectual activities on the Internet;
to amend the way of obtaining a right holder’s consent
The Berne Convention revisions for limitations and exceptions to copyright 2012:1 KEI Research Note August 2012. Revised June 18, 2017. This research note reports on the evolution of each copyright exception found in the Berne Convention for the Protection of… Continue Reading →
Kista Cox on a provision in the TPP trade negotiation that would restore right to sue surgeons and other medical professionals for patent infringement. The US law (35 USC 287(c)) was changed after lawsuits were filed against surgeons performing certain procedures in eye surgery. USTR and USPTO have been asked to protect this exception in the TPP Intellectual Property Chapter, but have not done so.
On February 20, 2006, Martin Terberger, the Head of Unit for Pharmaceuticals in the European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry, wrote to Greg Perry of the European Generic medicines Association (EGA). The letter was a follow-up to an inquiry from the EGA regarding “the question of data exclusivity under the European pharmaceutical legislation,” in cases where a government overrode the exclusive rights of a patent and granted a compulsory license, and/or in a case of a medical emergency.
The XIX International AIDS Conference, which saw over 24,000 participants, came to a close on Friday, July 27, 2012. A number of people living with HIV/AIDS, activists, the immediate past president and current president of the International AIDS Society (and 2008 Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and former President Bill Clinton were among the speakers.
