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Background to the debate: PLoS Medicine is participating in the Council of Science Editors' global theme issue on poverty and human development on October 22, 2007 (http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/globalthemeissue.cfm). Over 200 scientific and medical journals are taking part. For our theme issue, we asked a wide variety of commentators worldwide—including clinicians, medical researchers, health reporters, policy makers, health activists, and development experts—to name the single intervention that they think would improve the health of those living in poverty. We also asked four individuals living in poor, rural agricultural communities in the Santillana district, province of Huanta, Ayacucho, Peru to give us their response to the question, “What do you think would do the most to improve your health and the health of your family?” (The four community members were Severino Rojas Poma, Mercedes Vargas Soto, Julián De La Cruz Chahua, and Martín Rojas Poma)
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In Dongguan City in China’s southern Guangdong Province, you can buy a computer laptop for US$100. If you’ve got $200 in your wallet, you can acquire a second large machine, like a copier or fax. Yet even though products “made in China” are known for their low prices, the cheapest high-tech commodities here aren’t locally made. They actually come from the United States, Europe, and Japan, and are imported electronic waste, or “e-waste”

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As China implements its plan to improve scientific innovation, it will need to solve such political and economic problems as finding the proper balance between indigenous efforts and engagement with the global community.

In January 2006, China initiated a 15-year "Medium- to Long-Term Plan for the Development of Science and Technology." The MLP calls for China to become an "innovation-oriented society" by the year 2020, and a world leader in science and technology (S&T) by 2050. It commits China to developing capabilities for "indigenous innovation" (zizhu chuangxin) and to leapfrog into leading positions in new science-based industries by the end of the plan period. According to the MLP, China will invest 2.5% of its increasing gross domestic product in R&D by 2020, up from 1.34% in 2005; raise the contributions to economic growth from technological advance to more than 60%; and limit its dependence on imported technology to no more than 30%. The plan also calls for China to become one of the top five countries in the world in the number of invention patents granted to Chinese citizens, and for Chinese-authored scientific papers to become among the world's most cited. In all likelihood, the MLP will have an important impact on the trajectory of Chinese development; it thus warrants careful attention from the international community.

http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-59/iss-12/p38.html
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Discussions about the risk of emerging technologies must acknowledge that their major impacts have rarely been spotted in advance.

homunculus blog
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A report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Monday, October 16, 2006, shows that the patent system is an integral part of increasing global economic activity, with the increase in patent filings closely mirroring economic growth around the world. The WIPO Patent Report 2006 shows that companies are increasingly using the intellectual property (IP) system to protect their investments in new markets. The report reveals that a total of 5.4 million patents were in force worldwide in 2004, the last year for which complete statistics are available.

"This comprehensive report presents a complete picture of worldwide patent activity in an easily-accessible format. It shows the distribution of patent activity around the world and contains detailed information on some of the important trends of the patent system," said Dr. Kamil Idris, Director General of WIPO. "Over the past few years WIPO has improved its collection and analysis of industrial property statistics to assist policy makers, practitioners and other interested parties in better understanding the impact of the patent system on economic and inventive activity around the world," he added.

The Director General said "The report shows a marked increase in the use of the patent system internationally. It also shows that the patent system is being used for its intended purposes, namely to stimulate innovation and promote economic activity." Dr. Idris further noted that the report shows an increase in the use of WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The PCT, which provides a simplified system for international patent filing, has become a major tool for companies seeking broad-based patent protection. The number of PCT applications grew at an average annual rate of 16.8% between 1990 and 2005 and topped 134,000 international applications in 2005. The PCT is now used in 47% of all international patent filings.

The number of patent applications filed worldwide almost doubled between 1985 to 2004, rising from 884,400 to 1,599,000 with an average annual rate of increase of 4.75% since 1995. This is in line with the average annual growth in world gross domestic product (GDP) of some 5.6%.

Since 1995 there has been a continuous increase in the number of filings by patent applicants in their country of residence, reflecting steady growth in domestic inventive activity. The bulk of the increase in total filings is accounted for by international patent applications. Large increases in foreign patents filings in countries like Brazil, China, India, Korea, and Mexico reflect the internationalization of markets and production. Companies seeking new export markets or investing overseas are keen on protecting their inventions in these key emerging economies.

The report notes a boom in patent filings in northeast Asia over the past 20 years, most notably with the emergence of China and the Republic of Korea as major industrial economies. For several decades Japan has been the largest patent office in the world with more than 400,000 patent applications filed by residents and non-residents in 2004. In only 20 years, China has become the 5th largest patent office in the world (by number of patent applications filed) and patent filings by Chinese residents grew more than five-fold between 1995 and 2004 to reach 65,786. Today, the Republic of Korea is the 4th largest patent office in the world and is also experiencing very high growth rates with a three-fold increase in patent filings by residents between 1994 and 2004.

Although an increasing number of applicants are seeking protection for their inventions outside their country of residence, and emerging and fast-developing economies have been using the patent system more extensively, its use is still very concentrated. Five patent offices account for 75% of all patents filed and 74% of patents granted worldwide. These are the United States of America (USA), Japan, the European Patent Office (EPO), Republic of Korea and China.

The ownership of patent rights in force, or the patents granted over the past 20 years, shows even greater concentration, with residents of Japan and USA owning 29% and 22% respectively of all patents in force in 2004. As not every patent application translates into a patent - this may be for a variety of reasons, for example, an applicant may decide not to pursue the application or an application may be rejected - the number of patents that were actually granted in 2004 is 600,000, representing an average annual growth of 4% between 1995 and 2004.

A patent is granted for a period of twenty years, although extensions are possible in some circumstances. In 2004, of the total of 5.4 million patents in force worldwide, 81% were granted in six countries: USA, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Republic of Korea and France. An analysis of the country of residence of the patent applicant, however, puts Japan at the head of the field followed by the USA, Republic of Korea, Germany, France and Russian Federation. It is to be noted that information on patents in force is not available for several offices that have relatively high numbers of patent applications, notably Argentina, Brazil, China, India and some European offices. Of the patents in force in 2004, 53% were filed in 1997 or later. Only 22% of the patents in force in 2004 were filed before 1994.

The report introduces the concept of patent intensity indicators that weight the number of patents by different measures of country size (population, GDP, research and development expenditure). Indicators of patent intensity show that Japan and the Republic of Korea, in particular, have very high rates of patenting as a proportion of GDP or of research and development activity. Per dollar of GDP, Japan and the Republic of Korea file five times as many patents as the industrialized countries of Europe and North America.

These indicators also show that many small industrialized countries have above average rates of patent filing, such as Australia, New Zealand, Finland, and Denmark. East European countries such as the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus also have high rates of patent activity when compared with total GDP and with research and development expenditure.

The full report is available at http://www.wipo.int/ipstats/en/statistics/patents/.

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In just seven years of operation, the caseload of the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) topped the 25,000 mark with a case that has just been decided. Since it launched its domain name dispute resolution services, the WIPO Center has resolved disputes under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and various other policies. The 25,000th case related to a cybersquatting dispute handled under the UDRP in which the panelist ordered the transfer of the domain name to the trademark owner, the Red Lion Hotels chain.

In the period since the launch of its dispute resolution services under the UDRP in December 1999 through August 2006, 9,567 UDRP or UDRP-based cases (generic top level domains, gTLDs and country code top-level domains, ccTLDs) have been filed with the WIPO Center, covering 17,912 separate domain names involving parties from 136 countries.

These figures rise to 25,085 cases (please see Annex 1) when the caseload of the various ad hoc "sunrise" dispute resolution policies, designed to avoid the flood of cybersquatting cases generated by the initial introduction of domain names, namely .info Sunrise, .biz STOP, .name ERDRP and .mobi Sunrise cases, are taken into account. As these policies are applicable for a limited time, these cases are received on a non-recurring, one-off basis. With the exception of the cases in the .mobi domain, which has commenced only recently, all WIPO sunrise cases have been resolved. These so-called sunrise policies established procedures that offered trademark owners additional means to preempt and counter abusive and bad-faith registration of their trademarks as domain names within a specified start-up phase.

Most of the 9,567 UDRP and UDRP-based disputes concern international domains, with .com representing some 79% of names involved, followed by .net (11%), .org (6%), .info (2%), and .biz, .travel, .aero and .edu (jointly 2%).

Of the total of 9,567 UDRP and UDRP-based cases the Center has received through August 2006, 8,936 (97%) have been resolved. In the 7,011 decisions they have rendered, WIPO panels have found for the complainant in 5,842 (84%) cases and 1,112 (16%) were denied. The remainder of the resolved cases were settled by the parties.

The 9,567 UDRP and UDRP-based cases included 418 cases involving domain names registered in ccTLDs. Three hundred and eighty eight of these have now been resolved, through 240 decisions in favor of the complainant, 43 decisions in favor of the respondent and 105 settlements between the parties, with 30 cases still pending. The Center now provides services for disputes in 47 ccTLDs (full list available at http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/cctld/) such as .au (Australia), .ch (Switzerland), .co (Colombia), .fr (France), .mx (Mexico), and .tv (Tuvalu). The latest domain to join this list has been .es (Spain) in early 2006.

The Center also offers dispute resolution services for registrations in non-Roman ("non-ASCII") scripts such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic or Korean ("internationalized" domain names) and has so far received 60 complaints in relation to such names, of which six are pending. The number such cases is expected to increase in future. The Center has managed proceedings in 12 languages, namely, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

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Improving consumer access to broadband Internet service is an important goal for federal, state, and local governments. The possibility of competitive risks arising from municipal participation in wireless Internet service, however, calls for a careful analysis by policymakers considering if, and to what extent, a municipality should involve itself in such service, according to a report prepared by Federal Trade Commission staff.

The report, “Municipal Provision of Wireless Internet,” offers guidance for policymakers considering these questions. According to Maureen K. Ohlhausen, Director of the FTC s Office of Policy Planning, “Many leaders in the U.S. acknowledge that broadband Internet service is crucial to the American people and our economy. However, municipal provision of wireless Internet service raises important competition issues that policymakers should consider when determining whether and how municipalities should provide that service.”

Rather than attempt to provide a one-size-fits all answer for every municipality, the report sets forth a decision-tree framework with a variety of options, recognizing that the potential benefits and risks of municipal involvement in wireless Internet may vary with a municipality s circumstances, such as the availability of broadband in the area and possible improvements in providing government services through increased broadband access.

Guiding this approach is a concern for competition principles, and the decision-tree framework seeks to reduce the possible competitive harms arising from a municipality operating as both a market participant and a regulator. By identifying a range of operating models, the framework outlines a variety of options that offer reduced competitive risks while still achieving benefits from increased broadband access. The report also discusses process considerations, such as transparency and accountability, that can improve the decision-making process overall.

The report describes the various wireless Internet technologies currently in use or under development, identifies a range of operating models that have been used to provide or facilitate wireless Internet service, summarizes the major arguments for and against municipal participation, and describes various types of legislative proposals related to municipal Internet service.

The report is the first publicly released work from the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force, convened by Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras in August 2006. Led by Ohlhausen with participants from throughout the agency, the Task Force seeks to enhance the FTC’s expertise in the area of Internet access, which has become an important public issue. The Task Force currently is studying the so-called “net neutrality” issue.

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The lights are bright in the 'surgery', but this isn't a hospital. A man in a lab coat is engaged in a delicate operation. By means of a precise and rigorous exploratory surgery, he will find out exactly what he needs to know.

Let's take a closer look. He's operating on… a cell phone?

The expert analyst in our scenario is not employing a surgical procedure to repair the cell phone; in fact, he is making use of reverse engineering to determine how the phone works in order to gain competitive intelligence on it and possibly, to see if it might be infringing any patents.

www.ipfrontline.com
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Vice-President Jacques Barrot in charge of transport at the European
Commission welcomed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between six cities and regions in Europe and Canada are joining forces with the aim of buying environmentally friendly zero-emissions hydrogen-powered buses Vice President Barrot said that “European transport policy seeks to develop mobility by disconnecting it from its harmful effects on the environment”. “Hydrogen for transport is one of the elements that will make this sustainable mobility policy possible” – the Vice President added.

Today’s decision to go ahead with this international alliance was taken by the partners after the successful completion of the major
EU-assisted hydrogen and fuel cell bus project CUTE (Clean Urban Transport for Europe). The European Commission fully supports this initiative as it sends a strong signal to the suppliers of hydrogen powered buses that potential markets exist for this new technology.

Other benefits, such as economies of scale, can be achieved through
demonstrating joint demand for buses. This will also encourage suppliers to move towards the commercialisation of hydrogen buses as soon as possible. The alliance between cities represents a positive step towards the introduction of hydrogen powered technology beyond the demonstration phase, which is essential if we are to find solutions for addressing climate change and other environmental challenges.

The Memorandum of Understanding on purchasing zero emissions
hydrogen-powered buses has been signed in the framework of the Third General Assembly of the Europe Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Platform. The signatory parties represent the following cities and regions: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, British Columbia Province, Hamburg and London.

For further information, see:
https://www.hfpeurope.org/
http://www.global-hydrogen-bus-platform.com/