Author: InfoJustice Eds.

[Ruwan Fernando] Apart from the basic statutory definition in section 65 of the Intellectual Property Act of Sri Lanka, there do not appear to be any detailed statutory guidelines or judicial decisions to provide any framework for the assessment of inventive step in Sri Lanka. The current statutory definition is highly insufficient to evaluate the standard of obviousness in relation to biotechnological and pharmaceutical claims based on a combination or modification of a prior art reference.

[Guillermo Rodrigo Corredor] The technological stocktaking for developing countries after the pandemic is quite ambiguous. Although the crisis was stopped using state-of-the-art vaccines that reached the most disadvantaged and remote places in record times, effective access to the new technologies that became available to curb the pandemic is, at least for the time being, less spectacular.

[Office of Senator Pramila Jayapal] U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Kathi Vidal, Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), calling on USPTO to take immediate action and use its existing administrative authorities to help lower drug prices and hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for anti-competitive business practices. The lawmakers outline six specific actions that the USPTO should take.