We write to express our deep concern with reports about proposed provisions regarding intellectual property, investment and pharmaceuticals reimbursement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations (TPP). We believe those provisions if included in the final agreement, would severely threaten access to…
USTR has proposed a differential treatment approach to the Trans Pacific Partnership intellectual property negotiations. The text would continue to include numerous TRIPS-Plus obligations favorable to branded pharmaceutical companies that restrict countries’ ability to craft laws and execute policies intended…
Yesterday the Cato Institute held an event titled “Intellectual Property in the Trans-Pacific Partnership: National Interest or Corporate Handout?” The panel, moderated by Cato’s Simon Lester, featured Tom Giovanetti (Institute for Policy Innovation), William Watson (Cato), and Margot Kaminski (Yale…
USTR demands for hyper-secrecy in the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) continue to be a major block to continuing negotiations. The current issue under discussion is access to US proposals by EU member states — which are of…
The intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement that Wikileaks posted in November signaled over 100 areas of disagreement. Those ‘square brackets’ have been rapidly disappearing in the lead-up to the ministerial meeting in Singapore this weekend, according to…
United States Trade Representative Froman announced yesterday that his agency will create a public interest trade advisory committee (PITAC) for academics and NGOs as part of the trade advisory committee structure. But instead of including public interest representatives within Industry…
[Cross posted from susanchalmers.com] To those familiar with the United States’ approach to intellectual property rights (“IP”) and trade policy, it will come as no surprise that the US is pressing other countries to give IP owners more in the…
Kajal Bhardwaj and Cecilia Oh Report Prepared for UNITAID World Health Organization In recent years, the number of bilateral and regional trade negotiations has been increasing. Many of these negotiations involve both developed and developing countries, and the ensuing free…
[Reposted from tppmpsfortransparency.org] Senior legislators from Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand and Peru today issued a joint letter seeking the release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) before it is signed, to enable detailed scrutiny…
The US has evergreened its patent proposal requiring patents on new forms of known/existing medicines by requiring patents on medicines with “distinguishing features.” This is the wine of old IP maximalism – an elixir for Big Pharma – in a…
[Reposted from Digital Rights LAC, Link, (CC-BY-SA)] At Digital Rights LAC we wanted to ask different specialists in the region about their personal appraisals on digital rights issues. This is the case of Francisco Vera from Chile. We asked him:…
This morning, Sen. Orrin Hatch spoke about international intellectual property issues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He was the keynote at the organization’s launch of the second edition of its Global Intellectual Property Index. A video of the event…