South Centre participates in African Group Health Workshop organized by the African Union

Dr. Xuan Li Coordinator of Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme (IAKP), and Ms. Marion Motari, Research Fellow, IAKP at the South Centre participated in the African Group Health Workshop organized by African Union on 11-12 April 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr. Li gave a presentation on “IPRs, Public Health and Innovation: TRIPS Flexibilities, Technical Assistance and Way Forward” while Ms. Marion Motari’s presentation was on "Options for Sustainable Financial Mechanisms to Support Medical R&D."

South Centre in Media: Disparities Seen In Developing Countries’ TRIPS Implementation

The South Centre recently organized a seminar on "The Implementation Game: Developing Countries, the TRIPS Agreement and the Global Politics of Intellectual Property" in Geneva on 5 December 2007. The seminar was chaired by Dr. Xuan Li, Coordinator of the Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme, South Centre and Dr. Carolyn Deere, Director, Global Trade Governance Project, Global Economic Governance Programme, University of Oxford, UK was the keynote speaker.

This event has been reported by the IP-Watch in its article "Disparities Seen In Developing Countries’ TRIPS Implementation." Although developing countries have strong concerns about the TRIPS agreement, a significant number of them have implemented even higher IP standards than those required by TRIPS, according to research on 107 countries presented by Carolyn Deere, director of the Global Trade Governance Project at the University of Oxford. The complete article is available at: http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=865

The Seminar was fifth in the series of the South Innovation Perspectives regularly organized by the South Centre which aims to provide a forum where cutting-edge research and ideas on innovation, access to knowledge and intellectual property, from a development perspective, are presented and debated.

South Centre provides training at the ILO-organized "Trade Union Training on International Trade Agreements, Development and Trade Union Agenda"

Ermias Biadgleng, Programme Officer, South Centre acted as a trainer for sessions on Investment: TRIMS and Bilateral Investment Provisions and on Intellectual Property: TRIPS and IP provisions at the "Trade Union Training on International Trade Agreements, Development and Trade Union Agenda" organized by the International Training Centre of the ILO at Turin, Italy on 31 October 2007.

South Centre organizes informal meeting in advance of TRIPS Council

There is a new momentum for the conclusion of the Doha Round of negotiations. If negotiations restart, it is crucial that developing countries make progress on issues related to TRIPS Agreement where they are demandeurs and especially on the proposal for disclosure requirement. In this context, South Centre organized an informal meeting on 22 October to ensure that developing countries pose a coordinated stance on the issue. Over 25 delegates participated in this meeting.

South Centre Digital TV: Patent Regime under TRIPS

Sudip Chaudhuri, Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta, India provides an insightful commentary on Patent Regime under the TRIPS Agreement. This commentary was recorded during the visit of Dr. Chaudhuri to the South Centre.

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Working lunch meeting for WTO TRIPS Council on disclosure requirement

The South Centre organized a working lunch on TRIPS-related issues on 19 September for over forty WTO developing country members who are co-sponsors of the proposal to amend Article 29 of the TRIPS Agreement to include a mandatory disclosure requirement of the origin of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge claimed in patent applications.This working lunch is a follow up to a series of working lunches organised by the South Centre in 2006 and April 2007 to advance the proposal that was formally submitted to the WTO by a group of developing countries in May 2006.

During the working lunch co-sponsors of the amendment proposal shared information and discussed future scenarios and strategy. The next meeting of the TRIPS Council will be on 23-24 October.