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Showing posts with label United Nations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United Nations. Show all posts

Friday, 9 March 2012

Patricia Covarrubia

Rural Areas are helped through collective marks

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Promoting competitiveness of products in rural areas is one of the targets in Peru this year. To do so, INDECOPI together with AGRORURAL (part of the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture) have established a partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to promote the use and registration of collective marks in different regions.

Collective marks, are used by a group of people (or companies) to distinguish their products from others undertakings – only to be used by members of that group/organization. Usually the group encourages standards and establishes a common strategy. It also may help “to promote the attraction of the area where producers are located.” Internationally, the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) requires the protection of collective marks - Peru is a member.


 
The trio, that is INDECOPI, AgroRural and UNIDO, discussed previous proposals from producers and selected some of them. The selected ones will now receive assistance in collective marks. The nominated were: ‘tallarin de casa’ Abanquino (Abancay - Apurimac Region), ‘native potatoes’ from the province of Acobamba (Huancavelica Region), 'native cotton' and 'honey of Lambayeque' (Lambayeque Region) and 'avocado Moro' and 'avocado Matacoto' (Ancash Region).

The program “not only seeks to promote the use and registration of collective marks, but to enable producers to have sufficient tools to help them improve their competitiveness and to develop successfully in the market.”

Source INDECOPI.
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Tuesday, 25 May 2010

Patricia Covarrubia

United Nations (UN) addressed Colombia in IP matters

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The UN Committee that monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, warned Colombia about the negative effects that a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) can have.

The UN advised (today 25th) that the Colombian authorities should review the points referring to the IP to ensure that prices of commodities such as medicines are affordable to low-income people. The UN was referring in particular to the FTA between Colombia and the United States which according to the news may have negative effects on the population's poorest country and it is the duty of the government to protect these areas.

I wonder what the UN saw in this FTA that did not see in the one recently signed between the US and Colombia-Peru. As far as I can see (please let me know if you notice something different) the protection of pharmaceutical product - patents & related processes and the period of test data exclusivity are pretty much the same in both FTAs. So, if they are, then the UN advice should consider this new FTA, don’t you think?

The FTA between the US and Colombia can be read here, and for the FTA-draft between the EU and Colombia-Peru click here.

I am off to the US for the Law and Society Association Annual Conference where I will be delivering a paper. I hope I can see you there and if not, I hope I can bring you some news (or two).
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