India and TRIPS - the question remains

Thanks again to IP-Watch for this report on the Indian decision in a challenge to Indian patent legislation by Novartis.

The aspect of the case of most interest to us was the argument by Novartis that the legislation, which limited patenting in the case of evergreening was inconsistent with India's obligations under TRIPS. But the court made it very clear that it did not have jurisdiction to consider whether national law was consistent with the international treaty, and that this question would need to be considered by the WTO dispute settlement body.

A mouth watering prospect - but it seems that Switzerland, home of Novartis is unlikely to make a complaint. Perhaps another pharmaceutial company, and another country will take a different view?

WHO and IP: and slowly it goes on

Thanks to IP Watch for this excellent and comprehensive summary of the latest proposal building on the WHO CIPIH report - seems that the proposal might be rather too comprehensive to be workable. I am interested in the comments on monitoring FTAs which do not include TRIPS PLUS provisions and a patent pool in respect of essential medicines. As long as it is clear what those are....

**New survey on use of open content licences by cultural heritage organisations **

The Eduserv Foundation is funding a study into the use of Creative Archive, Creative Commons and similar open content licences by cultural heritage organisations in the United Kingdom. The study is being led by legal consultant Jordan Hatcher of opencontentlawyer.com and friend of ipedinburgh. The survey is available here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=L3x_2b1lQJxqu7KdfK587AeA_3d_3d

This survey is open to UK-based cultural heritage organisations such as museums, libraries, galleries, archives, film and video organisations, broadcasters, and other organisations that conduct cultural heritage activities. The goal of this study is to provide information on the actual use of Creative Archive, Creative Commons, and similar licences. This information will be useful to decision makers and interested professionals in the cultural heritage sector, and for local and national government and the HE and FE sector. The study will be conducted from now through to the middle of September and a report will be made available in October. If you are a member of a cultural heritage organisation, whether or not you currently use Creative Commons or Creative Archive licences (or even know what they are!), your participation is needed to make this study a success.

AND

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