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Harmonisation of TRIPS-plus IPR policies and potential impacts on technological capability: A case study of the pharmaceutical industry in Thailand
14-Dec-2006 ICTSD
This study examines the impacts of TRIPS-plus rules on pharmaceutical patents as enshrined in US FTAs by looking at the case of Thailand.
US advises developing country FTA partners not to follow WHO IP plan
12-Dec-2006 IP Watch
Developing countries that have free trade agreements (FTAs) with the United States received an email in the form of a “démarche” from the US government before the 4-8 December 2006 meeting of the WHO Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights saying that it had become apparent that the WHO was trying to go beyond its competency and address issues which could have impact on the scope and effect of FTAs.
US-Russia bilateral/WTO deal pushes new standards for IP protection
26-Nov-2006 IP Watch
In its bilateral negotiation with the United States in order to join the World Trade Organization, Russia appears to have agreed to intellectual property rights standards that push those of the WTO and US law to new levels.
CPTech hosts post-election FTA strategy session
24-Nov-2006 CPTech
Last Thursday at CPTech a packed audience and 8 panelists discussed strategies for addressing the access to medicine implications of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) between the US and other countries.
IP developments in the DR-CAFTA countries
26-Oct-2006 Mondaq
Current state of play with intellectual property law reforms in Central America under the US-DR-CAFTA.
Data exclusivity regulations in India
18-Oct-2006
New Indian data exclusivity patenting regulations will severely hinder generic AIDS drugs manufacturing in India, and thus less people will have access to AIDS therapy globally. The world’s poor overwhelmingly make up this population with lack of access. Because of this, moral human rights and distributive justice approaches should compel India to take an equity-oriented approach in access to AIDS medicines and reject data exclusivity regulations currently under discussion.
IP rights under investment agreements: the TRIPS-plus implications for enforcement and protection of public interest
27-Sep-2006 South Centre
One of the issues that has recently started to influence the negotiations for new investment agreements involves the question of the status of IP rights and the impact of investment agreements on the rights, obligations and regulatory discretions of countries under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
BIO-IPR: Draft EU-Eastern and Southern Africa EPA
27-Sep-2006 GRAIN
A recent draft of the EPA between the EU and 16 Eastern and Southern Africa countries gives a taste of what these treaties might spell out in terms of rights to local biodiversity and traditional knowledge.
FTA paves way for biopiracy
15-Sep-2006 Latin America Press
Under CAFTA, indigenous heritage becomes intellectual property for the United States.
Patent or patient? How Washington uses trade deals to protect drugs
23-Aug-2006 Financial Times
The controversy over the impact of bilateral trade agreements on public health poses particular difficulties for the Geneva-based WHO, which is gearing up for the highly political election of a new director-general.
Progress on HIV drugs threatened by new trade pacts
20-Aug-2006 IPS
In the midst of the world’s biggest HIV/AIDS conference here, close to a hundred activists launched a noisy protest over bilateral free trade agreements, which they say elevate patent protections above the right to life-extending antiretroviral drugs.
Free trade agreements, intellectual property and access to medicines
18-Aug-2006
Patent and data protection rules in free trade agreements have a profound impact on the ability of developing countries to access life saving medicines of assured quality.
Making free trade fair
15-Aug-2006
Ukrit Kungsawanich, a fruit grower in Rayong, was worried when he read in the news that a US company is trying to patent a drink made with mangosteen extract.
South American Ministers vow to avoid TRIPS-plus measures
1-Jun-2006 TWN
The Ministers of Health of ten South American countries issued a joint declaration on intellectual property committing themselves to avoid "TRIPS plus" provisions in bilateral and regional trade agreements, to facilitate the use of compulsory licensing and parallel importing and to avoid broadening the scope of patentability and the extension of patentable areas.
The treatment of geographical indications in recent regional and bilateral FTAs
25-May-2006
The objective of this paper is to analyze what has been the treatment of GIs in the new generation of regional trade agreement as well as the content of the new standards being set.
Trade-related intellectual property rights, access to medicines and human rights - Morocco
21-Apr-2006 3D
The briefing calls for an independent human rights impact assessment of the effect of intellectual property rules in the US-Morocco Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on access to medicines and the enjoyment of human rights in Morocco.
US pushes to limit generic drug rights
18-Apr-2006
Under global trading rules, the inventors of medicines ordinarily enjoy the right to a 20-year monopoly on their inventions. But five years ago, the United States joined 141 other countries to sign the Doha Declaration, confirming the right of poor countries to break drug patents and produce cheap generic drugs in the event of contagions like HIV.
The impact of free trade agreements on intellectual property standards in a post-TRIPS world
4-Apr-2006
We are living in a post-TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) world. Almost every member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has had to reform their intellectual property laws in order to meet the minimum standards of protection that TRIPS prescribes .
The US-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA): The intellectual property provisions
26-Mar-2006 USTR
Report of the US government’s Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (ITAC-15)
FTAs: Trading away traditional knowledge
15-Mar-2006 GRAIN
Traditional knowledge has come up in a dozen or so FTA drafting processes over the last couple of years. In half of those cases, specific provisions on traditional knowledge were signed.