Excerpt reprinted with permission from Intellectual Property Watch (full article)
WTO TRIPS Council considers workshop On public health amendment
By Kaitlin Mara
The World Trade Organization group on intellectual property rights met 2 March and ended early, discussing a potential workshop on an amendment intended to ease access to cheaper generic medicines in countries without a pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, a new proposal from Bolivia, and three separate longstanding IP [intellectual property] issues with no major changes.
Countries were unable to agree to hold a workshop on the so-called “paragraph 6” agreement, which allow countries to issue a compulsory license on drugs primarily intended for export to developing countries in need of cheaper generic versions and unable to manufacture them themselves.
Instead, the chair of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council said he will hold informal consultations on the issue, though the details of when and how they will be conducted are not yet decided. The United States appears to be the main opponent of holding a workshop, according to several sources. For more background on this issue, see (IPW, WTO/TRIPS, 1 March 2010).
Reprinted in GenevaLunch with permission from IP Watch. IP Watch is a Geneva-based newsletter covering intellectual property issues.
By William New, editor, IP Watch
The United States Department of Justice yesterday told the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that progress had been made on its concerns in the settlement allowing internet search giant Google to scan millions of books into a searchable database. But the government lawyers continue to have doubts on copyright, class certification and antitrust issues, they said.
Justice made its views known in a 31-page filing [pdf] filed with the court on 4 February. While it praised efforts so far, the department said, “the amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement: it is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court in this litigation.”
In The Authors Guild Inc. et al. v. Google Inc. case, the district court is scheduled to hold a hearing on the proposed amended settlement agreement on 18 February.
Lovely for football fans, but not the real thing: Swiss flag is a square
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss flag, the word “Swiss” and “Made in Switzerland” are getting logo-like protection, with tighter restrictions on their use in Switzerland and abroad. The Swiss Federal Council Wednesday 18 November recommended key changes to intellectual property coverage for “Swissness” that are designed to make up for a current lack of precision.
Consumers will benefit, says the government, noting that more than 50 percent of consumers in a recent poll said they would be willing to pay up to twice the price for several Swiss food products. Letter box companies will be hurt, says Bern, since they will no longer be able to say they are Swiss.
The legal changes are designed to ensure that the CHF6 billion a year, or 1 percent of Swiss GDP attributable to the idea of Swiss quality, has stronger legal backing.
The government calculates that the value added by a Swiss label can be as high as 20 percent for agricultural goods such as food and wine.
