October 12, 2012
2012-10-08 Johannesburg – A new online resource to help civil society and patient groups challenge unwarranted pharmaceutical patents, called the ‘Patent Opposition Database’, was launched last week by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). However, this tool will remain largely unusable in South Africa unless the country changes its restrictive patent laws, which don’t allow […]
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September 27, 2012
Image from Northeastern University School of Law Professor Brook K. Baker, Policy Analyst Health GAP September 26, 2012 In a stunning development, following an obscure vote of Heads of State at the Africa Union in 2007 (Assembly Council/AU/Dec. 138(VIII)), the AU Scientific, Technical, and Research Commission has proposed […]
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September 19, 2012
Image from MSF Access Campaign Last week, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board of India rejected an attempt by the pharmaceutical company Bayer to stop the generic company Natco from producing a generic version of Sorafenib, used to treat liver and kidney cancer, while a court case over the country’s first compulsory license is deliberated.
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September 12, 2012
The medical journal The Lancet has published an insightful summery of current legal challenges to India’s patent law. The authors argue that “pending cases against India’s patent laws threaten public health and misinterpret international intellectual property agreements”. This is also our view.
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September 11, 2012
A tribute to the strength of sustained, global activism for affordable medicines Fire in the Blood trailer v3jul12 from Fire in the Blood on Vimeo. The 2012 film Fire in the Blood depicts the battle between HIV treatment activists (for access to affordable antiretroviral medicines) and the pharmaceutical industry (for the protection of their patents […]
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September 10, 2012
Minister Motsoaledi made the keynote speech at the 6th Annual Conference on Competition Laws. In the speech he pointed to the success of measures to protect competition in improving access to HIV treatment and prevention in the country. His full speech can be found here
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August 29, 2012
This week Afro-IP wrote that new regulations on Botswana’s Industrial Property Act will go into force on 1 September 2012. The Afro-IP blog, which outlines some of the key amendments with regards to the protection of intellectual property, is posted below. One key amendment is that Botswana will now allow for pre-grant oppositions of patents. […]
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August 21, 2012
A discussion piece by Katie Kirk and Marcus Low The Fix the Patent Laws campaign is aimed at promoting the public interest through reform of South Africa’s intellectual property laws. It is focused on better utilising flexibilities in the existing international intellectual property landscape – and not on rethinking the patent model itself. Yet, even […]
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This article has been republished from Intellectual Property Watch where it was originally published on 20 August 2012. By Linda Daniels for Intellectual Property Watch CAPE TOWN – South African health activists and pharmaceutical industry stakeholders are keeping close watch over the government’s attempts to amend patent laws, which activists claim compromise the ability of […]
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