Tag: IPR

Indian pharmaceutical industry representatives and NGOs have voiced opposition to an imminent EU-India free trade agreement (FTA) which they claim would limit the emerging nation's ability to produce generic drugs.

It may be the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, but the recession has stifled new patent applications and experts say the worst is yet to come.

As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso last Friday (30 January), it emerged an EU-China summit will take place later this year, as both sides seek to repair relations and tackle the global financial crisis.

Europe needs to get professional people to work on knowledge transfer at universities, ease the patent system and get member states and university senior managers to understand that supporting knowledge transfer is part of their role, argues Gillian McFadzean of ProTon Europe.

In the face of the rising counterfeiting and piracy across Europe, the Commission is proposing a historical but controversial Directive that would - for the first time ever - force member states to adjust their penal codes and establish harmonised criminal sanctions against IPR-infringers.

As the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee prepares to vote on a Directive on criminal sanctions for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) infringements, the trenches between proponents of harsher punishments and consumer advocates are deepening.

Stakeholder consultation reveals three major obstacles for transnational research collaboration: cultural and regulatory differences and difficulties in finding partners.

As Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy makes "one final effort" to break the impasse on the EU community patent, campaigners warn that the Commission's proposal could bring back software patents "through the back door".

After the rejection, on 6 July 2005, by the Parliament of the draft directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, often referred to as the 'software patents directive', industry and associations are discussing the consequences for Europe's patent regime and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection for computer programmes. 

The Commission has come forward with a proposal for the EU-wide licensing of music in legal download services on the internet.

By a vast majority, parliament rejected the proposal on the patentability of software and other computer-related inventions on 6 July 2005. The Commission will not come forward with another proposal on the much-disputed issue.

The UK presidency will concentrate its R&D efforts on advancing work on the FP7. It also emphasises the need to increase EU funds for research and to make the EU more attractive to business research and innovation.