Posts Tagged: "WTO"

C4IP and IP Celebrities Tell Biden to Pass on Extension of TRIPS Waiver

Nearly 50 former government officials and other well-known figures in the IP space signed onto a letter today penned by the Council for Innovation Promotion (C4IP) urging President Biden to oppose the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) proposed extension of the COVID-19 IP waiver to therapeutics and diagnostics. The WTO announced a deal on waiver of IP rights for COVID-19 vaccine technologies under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in June 2022. The final text made almost no one happy and was much narrower than the original proposal by South Africa and India. The waiver is limited to “patented subject matter required for the production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines” only.

Witnesses and House IP Subcommittee Members Skeptical About Extending TRIPS IP Waiver

The House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet today held a hearing titled “IP and Strategic Competition with China: Part II – Prioritizing U.S. Innovation Over Assisting Foreign Adversaries,” which focused on the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) agreement on a waiver of IP rights for COVID-19 vaccine technologies under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) last June. All of the panelists agreed that COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency and that an extension of the waiver to diagnostics and therapeutics is likely unnecessary.

As IP Waiver Extension Deadline Approaches, Advocacy Groups Call on WTO Director-General to Step In

A group of more than 160 charities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), advocacy organizations, and others sent a letter today under the banner of the People’s Vaccine Alliance to World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala imploring the WTO not to accept the proposed delay of a decision to extend waiver of IP rights under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to therapeutics and diagnostics. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on December 6 announced support for delaying the deadline on an extension decision.

Former Commerce, USPTO Heads Push for U.S. to Lead Opposition to Extending WTO’s COVID IP Waiver

In a webinar hosted today by the Council for Innovation Promotion (C4IP), the organization’s founders, Andrei Iancu and David Kappos, both former Directors of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), spoke with former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, about the increased skepticism surrounding a plan to extend the waiver of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. According to Kappos, while World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries were supposed to decide on December 17 whether to extend the waiver, “given the rising opposition and other countries starting to raise their hands” with questions, “it’s seeming likely the WTO will defer its decision until the New Year.”

Mexico and Switzerland Question Need for Extension of COVID IP Waiver

A communication from the governments of Mexico and Switzerland to the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) on Tuesday raised a number of questions about the prospect of extending a waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights for COVID-19 vaccine technologies to therapeutics and diagnostics. The Council met informally in September to discuss the extension, which technically has a deadline of December 19, six months after the Ministerial Conference decision finalizing a waiver on “patented subject matter required for the production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines” only. The final agreement contemplated extending the waiver to “the production and distribution of COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics” within six months of adoption.