We are concerned about TRIPS-plus proposals concerning intellectual property enforcement. Intellectual property are “private” rights, to be enforced by the IP holder. However, we note with concern that there are a number of proposals shifting the burden of enforcement onto the government and according greater enforcement rights in favour of the IP holder at the expense of equity, rights of third parties and public interests.
[Reposted from the Third World Network, Link] The forthcoming 70th World Health Assembly (WHA) will discuss access to medicines including the United Nations Secretary General’s High Level Panel Report on Access to Medicines (UNHLP report). The inclusion of this agenda…
[Third World Network, Link] The World Health Organization (WHO) Member State Mechanism (MSM) on substandard/spurious/falsely-labelled /falsified/counterfeit medical products (SSFFC) has agreed to recommend to the World Health Assembly (WHA) to drop the term “counterfeit” to refer to quality-compromised medical products.…
[Reposted from the Third World Network, Link] The United States and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) at the World Trade Organization have reached agreement ad referendum on a pharmaceutical patent exemption for a duration of 17 years, according to trade…
[Cross posted from the TWN Info Service on Intellectual Property Issues, Link] As the World Trade Organization’s intellectual property body begins its session today, there is emerging consensus among the organization’s members that the poorest nations in the world, the…
Research Paper 56. South Centre. LINK TO FULL PAPER on SOUTHCENTRE.INT Executive Summary: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) suffers from numerous communicable and non-communicable diseases, with significant socio-economic effects, and adversely impacting the development prospects of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of…
Joint Statement by 26 NGOs, June 21, 2013 [PDF] On 11th June 2013, the WTO TRIPS Council took a decision (IP/C/64) to extend for a further 8 years, the flexibility of least developed country (LDC) Members under Article 66.1 to…
An investigation conducted by Edward Hammond, consultant researcher of Third World Network, has revealed that a leading medical centre in The Netherlands is using a material transfer agreement (MTA) that claims proprietary rights over the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)…
Developed countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, have offered a poor and impractical deal of an incredibly short extension of 5 years with restrictive conditions to least developed countries that are entitled to be exempted from implementing…
Civil society organisations from the SADC region, and around the world have condemned the SADC draft Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (Plant Breeders’ Rights) as spelling disaster for small farmers and food security in the region.…
Attached here is a letter from hundreds of civil society groups (representing millions of people worldwide) to members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) urging them to support the request and draft decision text proposed by the Least developed Countries…
The letter below was sent to Mr. Francis Gurry on 30th November 2011. The contents were also communicated during the Advisory Committee on Enforcement that met on 30th November to 1st December 2011.
Regards,
Sangeeta Shashikant
Third World Network
...Today it is widely known that proponents of a "maximalist agenda" on intellectual property (made up of OECD businesses and governments) are on a campaign to increase IP protection and enforcement far beyond the minimum standards of the TRIPS Agreements in ways that are "TRIPS-Plus-Plus".[1] However such an approach disregards the development dimension, undermines public interests and compromises fundamental human rights such freedom of expression over the internet.[2] ...