The Intersection of Intellectual Property and Trade: An Analysis of the Doha Round
The Doha Round represents the latest series of trade negotiations among WTO members, officially launched at the WTO's Fourth Ministerial Conference in Qatar in 2001. Its goal is to substantially reform the global trade system by reducing trade barriers and revising rules across approximately 20 trade-related areas, including intellectual property matters such as rights protection, affordable access to medicines, flexibility within the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, the promotion of technology transfer, and more.
SME Fund: EUIPO adds new IP vouchers
The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) made available new forms of support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based in the European Union. The SME Fund call for proposals is supported by the European Commission and the EUIPO, taking the form of IP vouchers that will co-finance IP-related activities.
In addition to the previously available vouchers (1 and 2), the following are now eligible:
Figures reveal early pandemic rush for covid-related trademarks
Cape Verde, an island state formed by an archipelago of 10 islands, benefits from its geographic position and has an economy based on the services sector, including trade, transport, tourism, public services, and exports of fish and clothing.
The sugarloaf pineapple: GIs as a development tool in action
The west African nation of Benin has registered its first protected geographical indication at the African Intellectual Property Organisation on 28 October. The honour goes to the sugarloaf pineapple from the Allada Plateau, which has juicy and sweet white flesh, and the distinction of remaining green when fully ripe.
Drug patent applications to combat COVID-19
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 (SARS-COV-2) is completing a year since the most comprehensive health measures to combat the virus began. Intensive efforts to develop new active ingredients, treatment methods and vaccines have been carried out by the scientific community and pharmaceutical companies.
The first vaccines
Counterfeiting of Drugs in Africa: current situation, causes and countermeasures
Counterfeit is a world spread phenomenon in which the product of someone, company or individual, is imitated to reproduce the original, although often made with materials and components of reduced quality and illegally bearing a trademark or a copyright of another without their permission.
Nigeria implements updated tariff to improve goods certification
Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has implemented a new tariff, effective from 1, June 2019.
This alteration implies the increase of the costs of some regulatory services, and it introduces new elements, such as an inspection fee for imported goods.
There’s also a new inspection fee for risk assessment of certified facilities, that intend to manufacture for other clients. This inspection is required to obtain NAFDAC approval and the product registration number, that certifies its legitimacy.