Registration Open for the 3rd Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest

[Global Congress/Open Air]  In December 2013, delegates from national and international governmental entities, the private sector, civil society and academia will gather for five days of interconnected events in Cape Town, South Africa. Hosted by the University of Cape Town (UCT), participants will engage with diverse perspectives and future scenarios for intellectual property (IP), innovation and development during the combined 3rd Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest and Open A.I.R. Conference on Innovation and IP in Africa, running from 9 to 13 December 2013 in Cape Town. Click here for more.

Medicines Patent Pool and Roche Sign HIV Medicines Agreement

[MPP Press Release]  The Medicines Patent Pool and Roche today announce an agreement to increase access in developing countries to valganciclovir, a key easy-to-take oral medicine to treat cytomegalovirus (CMV), a viral infection that can cause blindness in people living with HIV. The agreement, available here [pdf], will significantly improve access to Roche’s valganciclovir for people living with HIV in 138 developing countries by making it up to 90% cheaper than current prices. As a second step, the Medicines Patent Pool and Roche will also enter into licensing and technology transfer negotiations to encourage the development of internationally approved quality generic versions of valganciclovir. Click here for more.

Towards a New Italian Regulation on Online Copyright Enforcement

[Marco Bellezza]  Thursday, July 25th, the Italian Communication Authority (“AGCOM”) issued a new draft regulation … which, among other measures provides for new administrative procedures before the AGCOM for the notice and takedown of online content which infringe copyright… From a preliminary analysis of the Regulation, despite what was declared by AGCOM’s members in the last months, the Regulation appears unbalanced in favor of the enforcement measures. The measures aimed at fostering the legal offer of digital works to fight online piracy are weak and likely will be ineffective. Click here for more.

Congressional Research Service on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: IPR Negotiations May Be Tough

[Mike Palmedo] The Congressional Research Service has released a report on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in which it discusses “selected key TTIP negotiating issues.” It predicts that regulatory talks will be among the most difficult topics for negotiators, stating that “there is debate about whether a comprehensive agreement on regulatory issues can be reached.” The report suggests that negotiations over “Rules” topics such as intellectual property and investment may be easier overall, but that within them “debates about certain rules may become more prominent.” Click here for more.

Engineered in India – Patent Law 2.0

[Excerpt from article by Amy Kapczynski in the New England Journal of Medicine]  India is known as the “pharmacy of the developing world,” because it supplies much of the world’s demand for affordable, generic drugs. So when the Supreme Court of India issued a landmark ruling in April adopting a strict interpretation of the country’s new patent law, advocates for global access to medicines celebrated. In fact, the decision in Novartis v. Union of India & Others provides an important model for other countries around the world — a step toward a “patent law 2.0” that not only helps to ensure access to medicines but might also help better align pharmaceutical innovation with public health needs. Click here for the full article on the NEJM website.

University of California adopts system-wide open access policy

[Timothy Vollmer] Today the University of California (UC) Academic Senate announced the adoption of a system-wide open access policy for future research articles generated by UC faculty. The articles will be made publicly available for free via UC’s eScholarship repository. According to the press release, the University of California open access policy will cover 8,000 faculty who author approximately 40,000 articles each year. Click here for more from Creative Commons. 

USTR Overturns Ban of Apple Products Found to Infringe Standards-Essential Patents

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has overturned the International Trade Commission (ITC) ban on certain models of iPads and iPhones. The ITC had found that these particular models infringed Standards-Essential Patents (SEPs), and had issued an order preventing Apple from importing them. Froman’s decision cites the public interest in interoperability of products containing technologies protected by SEPs. News coverage includes:

Malaysian Parliamentarian Seeks Legislative Oversight of the TPP Negotiations; MITI Holds Public Consultation

[Mike Palmedo] Nurul Izzah Anwar, Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai and Vice President of KEADILAN, has called for the creation of a Parliamentary Select Committee on the Trans Pacific Partnership.  She further stated that the agreement must be ratified by Parliament before signing… Last week the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry hold an open consultation session on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which approximately 1,000 people attended… Burhan Irwan Cheong, lead IP negotiator for the Malaysian TPP negotiating team, told participants that the intellectual property chapter “is one of the largest and more complex chapters and we have a lot of catching up to do to reach a state of consensus in the negotiations, compared with other sections in the agreement.” Click here for more.