TACD meeting on Patents, Copyright and Knowledge Governance

The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue recently hosted a meeting in Washington D.C. on Patents, Copyrights and Knowledge Governance.  Panellists were charged with making 2-3 concrete policy recommendations re IP for the incoming Obama administration.  While no consensus was reached, and in fact only a few of the presenters actually provided specific policy recommendations, there were some interesting presentations [...]

A Nigerian perspective on access barriers to medicines and treatment

What are the real access barriers to healthcare for people in Sub-Saharan Africa?  The following article from the Wall Street Journal Europe provides an interesting perspective on the healthcare challenges in Nigeria, with a focus on AIDS patients.  Mr. Ayodele states that the “real causes of restricted access to to AIDS drugs are Africa’s derelict transportation [...]

600% increase in number of patent filings in India (from 2000-2007)

According to India’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Intellectual Property Rights, the number of patents filed in India increased by 600 per cent between the fiscal years 1999-2000 and 2006-2007.
“In the era of globalisation, the importance of IPR is growing and has become imperial to the growth of Indian economy.” — Sujit Gulati, IAS, state [...]

Strengthening the economies of developping countries through intellectual property

As reported in This Day Online, Assistant Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, has advocated a structured approach in harnessing Nigeria’s intellectual property assets, which he said  remained one of the tools for economic development.
“The most important source of technological information known to man today is the patent system. [...]

China looks to strengthen intellectual property rights

New intellectual property plan to boost Chinese patents
Hepeng Jia
24 June 2008
[BEIJING] China has launched a national intellectual property rights (IPR) strategy to encourage innovation and strengthen its legal framework in the field.
The National IPR strategy outline, published earlier this month (5 June) by China’s State Council, aims to turn China into “a nation with an [...]

Lower tariffs to fight AIDS

25,000 people from around the world gathered this week in Mexico City for the 17th International AIDS Conference.  Thomson Ayodele’s column in yesterday’s New York Post focuses on the main challenges facing patients in developing countries:  lack of healthcare infrastructure and access to safe medicines.
( August 4, 2008 )  This week, 25,000 people from around the [...]

Who Profits from Patents being voided?

Everyone is upset about the price of gasoline at the pumps.  Yet I keep reminding myself that there must be some oil stocks in my pension funds so it can’t be all bad – can it?
I heard a very interesting talk the other day about speculation in the oil industry.  Speculators are driving up the [...]

Generic drugs cost more in Canada

Efforts by generic manufacturers to undermine intellectual property rights are not limited to developing countries.  The following article highlights how generic drug makers are excessively profiting on the backs of Canadian consumers and private and government run drug plan payers.
Generic drug manufacturers are spreading misinformation about amendments to patent regulations in order to draw attention [...]

Patents are the wrong target

Much as the WHO’s IGWG draft strategy on public health, innovation and intellectual property remains unfinished with the close of the 61st World Health Assembly, so does the global discussion on this important topic.
Benetto Della Verova, a member  of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, writing in the International Herald Tribune (‘Patents are the wrong target’ ) examines [...]

The relationship between intellectual property (IP) rights & drug efficacy and safety

Without any meaningful input from patients, intense efforts are underway at the WHO to weaken – or dismantle – the system of intellectual property (IP) rights that has produced nearly every life-saving medicine that is available today.  On behalf of a variety of both public and private sector special interests, anti-IP NGOs are using the [...]