ISDS Case Map
intellectual property
Sandinista National Liberation Front legislators will present a minority report against ratification of the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with the United States, Nicaraguan Congresswoman Alba Palacio said.
Non governmental organizations (NGOs) yesterday made an impassioned plea to the government to remove the subject of medicines from negotiations on the proposed Thai-US free trade area (FTA), warning that Thai patients suffering from chronic conditions could be hit with sky-high costs for medication.
On 4-8 April 2005, negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Thai and the US will take place in Pattaya. Following two previous rounds in Hawaii, the US is expected to submit demands on remaining issues, the most important of which is the issue of patents. This is a sign-on statement to call on the Thai government to halt the third round of negotiations in order to conduct a through review of the outstanding points and the negotiating position towards the FTA.
The global bully, the United States, has just coerced Guatemala, its
latest victim, into repealing an important law to lower the price of
pharmaceuticals and promote generic competition. The U.S. ambassador to
Guatemala acknowledged that the Guatemalan law was intended to advance
public health objectives. But, no matter, he said -- U.S. commercial
interests in the form of Big Pharma demanded that the law go.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout has warned Chinese officials that intellectual piracy could be a critical block to plans for a free trade agreement, with international agencies estimating that 90 per cent of copyright goods sold in China are counterfeit.
Examines how bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements which contain specific investment provisions reflect geopolitical concerns and redefine rights and privileges for transnational corporations, including with respect to commercial control over biodiversity through intellectual property rights.
Warner Music Australia and other record companies are suing ISP Swiftel Communications for copyright infringement for allegedly hosting and maintaining two Internet computer servers and a Web site called Archie's Hub which deploys the BitTorrent application. The case is the first to test legislation passed to enact the Australian-United States Free Trade Agreement.
A group of US companies, represented by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), has expressed concern regarding approval by the Egyptian Ministry of Health for some 500 generic versions of patented drugs.
A letter sent by South African Trade Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa to the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa confirms that the demand of EFTA Countries (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) to include provisions on intellectual property rights relating to medicines and agriculture in the Free Trade Agreement with SACU (South Africa,
Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland) has been rejected.
The United States has conveyed to Pakistan that trade relations could not be normalised prior to crackdown on the violators of Intellectual Property Rights and withdrawal of case against a US-based company, Slemens-Westinghouse.
