The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
The World Intellectual Property Indicators 2010 provides a wide range of indicators covering various areas of intellectual property: patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs and microorganisms. It presents statistics on microorganisms for the first time, and introduces a variety of new patent-based indicators (for example, academic patents by field of …
The role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the transfer of climate change technologies has emerged as a particularly contentious issue in the past two years. Against this background, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the European Patent Office (EPO) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) …
After months of speculation, Brazil and India have launched a WTO dispute against the EU and the Netherlands over the seizure of generic drugs in transit. The complainants requested dispute settlement consultations on 11 May, citing a raft of EU and Dutch regulations that allow customs officials to detain goods …
Ever heard of industry, and the developed world industry, mind you, saying that patents are not the best way of sharing knowledge? Well, here is what a spokesperson for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) said in July. "Using IP (intellectual property) or the patent system to enforce compliance in the …
Trade agreements with stiff intellectual property protection requirements combined with buyouts of India’s top generics makers by multinationals threaten to deny affordable medicines to millions of poor. The cost of essential medicines is a major barrier to healthcare, writes LATHA JISHNU. But the Indian government is doing little to control …
The 2010 Seeds Bill that has been introduced in Parliament does address some of the major concerns in the aborted 2004 version, but strangely a number of important correctives
The leit motif of the Bill is to create guidelines and institutional framework in academic and research institutions. This Bill will give rise to number of patents because now every scientist getting public money would be under an obligation by law to patent what is patentable. It will also increase …
If tariffs were the big-ticket issue of trade disputes in an earlier decade, intellectual property rights (IPRs) are making for all the drama, standoffs and skulduggery in international negotiations today. Why are IPRs so crucial to the new economic order? To understand this one needs to come to terms with …
WHAT RICH COUNTRIES SAY AND WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO is worlds apart. At the just concluded round of discussions on ACTA, the controversial Anti- Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, in Lucerne in Switzerland, the countries trying to steamroller a plurilateral pact to tighten enforcement of global intellectual property (IP) rules made some …
What is technology transfer and what does it need to succeed? Various factors concerning the scientist, the academic institution, a fresh entrepreneur or an existing company, government policies and the environment contribute to greater efficiency in transferring technologies from academia to industry. These factors are discussed here with reference to …
Following an informal dialogue on the India-European Union free trade agreement (FTA) last week, both sides are confident that the pact will be finalised by the end of the year. Along with meeting the EU
An empirical study of the impact of patenting and licensing on regional manufacturing of human papilloma virus vaccines to help improve vaccine affordability and access.
The demands of global capital, mediated through the market, are increasingly driving the trajectory of advances in science. Today this acts as the principal barrier to the advance of science as a knowledge system that is designed to serve the needs of the people. The needs of a neo-liberal economic …
Abakery in the Russian autonomous republic of Tatarstan has signed a unique agreement with the region’s government. It can now use the picture of the republic’s seat of government, Kazan Kremlin, on its products. The large bakery, which produces the Tatar sweet chak-chak, had been using the image since the …
The government introduced the copyright amendment bill in the Rajya Sabha on April 19. The bill gives independent rights to authors, film directors and musicians and makes it difficult for Internet users to access works protected by copyright. G R Raghavender, registrar of copyrights, said the amendments are necessary as …
WITH the tone set for Cancun, the aim is to work towards an agreement on key issues that could help smooth the way for a global deal. A movement in technology would go a long way in getting the much-needed movement in climate change negotiations. However, there are large gaps …
